African ginger is an indigenous plant species that grows in the wild and is mostly used by traditional healers to treat asthma. Due to there being a large number of people suffering from asthma, the plant has been over harvested and is now extinct.

The CSIR has identified African ginger cultivation sites in Mpumalanga. To support the use of African ginger in the treatment of asthma, our study compares the African ginger that grows on cultivated land to the one that grows in the wild.