Effect of Ginger and Cinnamon Intake on Oxidative Stress and Exercise Performance and Body Composition in Iranian Female Athletes

Background: ginger (rich in gingerols and shogaols) rhizomes havebeen widely used as dietary spices and to treat different diseases inasia. cinnamon (containing cinnamic aldehyde and cinnamyl aldehyde)is used as spices and as a pharmacological agent in ancient medicine.intense exercise can result in oxidative damage to cellular compoundsand also muscle soreness. efficacy of dietary ginger and cinnamon asantioxidant agents and their effectiveness in exercise performance andreducing muscle soreness have been investigated in limited studies onhumans. so we studied the effects of dietary ginger and cinnamon onoxidative stress and exercise performance and body composition iniranian female taekwondo players.methods: sixty healthy trained women, aged 13-25 years, wereenrolled in the 6 week investigation and randomly categorized inthree groups (cinnamon, ginger, or placebo) and received three gramsof ginger, cinnamon, or placebo powder each day depending on thegroup they belonged. human malondialdehyde (mda) level, exerciseperformance, and body composition were evaluated in the beginningand at the end of the study and compared among the groups.results: forty?nine of the participants completed the 6 weeksintervention. there was minor decrease in mda in cinnamon andginger group compared with the placebo group and significant increasein exercise performance in ginger group (p < 0.01), and considerableincrease in skin fold in cinnamon groups (p < 0.01), whereas there weresignificant accretion in bmi for ginger group (p < 0.1) and cinnamongroup (p < 0.05). no significant changes in mda, ep, and bmi wereobserved between groups over time. but there were specific changes inskin fold between cinnamon and placebo group (p < 0.05) and cinnamonand ginger groups (p < 0.05).conclusions: six weeks administration of ginger and cinnamon inathlete women did not show any significant change in mda level, bodycomposition, and exercise performance as compared with the placebogroup.