Photos by GARY GAYNOR/Tucson Citizen
ABOVE: Tracy Everingham checks a drip line on a ginger plant inside a greenhouse on top of the University of Arizona's Sixth Street Parking Garage. Various lines of herbs yield different amounts of medicinal compounds.
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High atop a parking garage at the University of Arizona, a researcher is conducting experiments with two aromatic culinary herbs that might provide a medicine for people suffering from arthritis and other inflammatory conditions.
"We are looking at ginger and turmeric," said David R. Gang, 36, assistant professor of plant sciences in the UA College of Agriculture, working under a five-year National Science Foundation grant. "We have several different lines in the 300 plants there.
"What my lab is trying to do is figure out how these plants make the compounds that are responsible for these medicinal and flavor properties the plants have," he said.
Various lines of the plants are included in the series of experiments. Each is periodically examined to discover what happens with the production of these medicinal compounds, he said. "Some are high producers of compounds and some are low producers, and we are looking at the differences and the genetic reason for this."
GARY GAYNOR/Tucson Citizen
Greenhouse supervisor Arturo Baez checks a monitor for one of the greenhouse rooms atop the Sixth Street Parking Garage. Information from sensors can be accessed by Baez anywhere he has a computer so he can make changes to a greenhouse.
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While the herbs seem to offer many benefits, there is no known down side if taken in moderation. Extensive clinical trials have been done on ginger and turmeric in Europe and Asia, and there have never been any adverse effects.
"Ginger and turmeric ... have been used for thousands of years in India and China to treat arthritis and other inflammatory conditions like irritable-bowel syndrome.
"They also have antioxidant properties, and ginger has some analgesic properties and might help with migraines," he added. "It's also a good anti-nausea drug.
"Turmeric is used in chemotherapeutic regimens to help people to recover better, and it helps inhibit cancer growth too," Gang said. "It actually becomes an effective component of the treatment itself, and it tastes good too.
"It doesn't take a large dose," he said. "You'd take a dietary supplement each day." Or just go to the store and buy some in bulk, he suggested.
Gang's work is only one of several research projects under way in the greenhouse on the UA's Sixth Street Parking Garage, said Tracy N. Everingham and Arturo Baez, who make sure the facilities are properly operated and maintained.
"We oversee the plant nutrition, irrigation, lighting and other issues," Everingham said. Some of the other projects on the rooftop include studies on corn, tomatoes and petunias, added Baez.
