Summary
Aframomum melegueta (Alligator Pepper, Grains of Paradise) is a herb where the seeds have traditional usage mostly as a pungent spice to season foods with. This herb is botanically in the same family as Ginger and shares many bioactives, and has been (medicinally speaking) traditionally used mostly for digestive and intestinal health with some other sporadic uses not related to food.
When looking at the evidence, most of it is preliminary and a full compositional analysis does not appear to exist at this moment in time. It seems very related to Ginger, and has many of the same bioactives.
Aframomum melegueta appears to have some anti-diabetic and anti-obese mechanisms, although neither are remarkable (the one human study conducted in humans has confirmed an increase in metabolic rate, but required both cold exposure as well as brown fat on the person in question as prerequisites). The aphrodisiac and testosterone boosting properties are both preliminary (with the former not appearing too potent, relative to other herbs) and the anti-estrogen mechanisms are still fairly preliminary and of unknown practical relevance.
Aframomum melegueta may be promising for a spice to add to a diet in hopes of body recomposition and particularly for men, but there is overall a lack of evidence to support its usage as a supplement and higher oral doses may still have some toxicity associated with them (which needs to be more thoroughly investigated)
What are other names for Grains of Paradise
- Grains Of Paradise
- Melegueta Pepper
- Alligator Pepper
- Guinea Pepper
- Guinea Grain
- Aframomum Melegueta
Dosage information
The only current human study used a 95%-ethanolic extract of Aframomum melegueta at 10 mg daily. There is no evidence to suggest whether this is the optimal dose, but it appears to be a low enough dose that the spice itself can be used on top of food.
