Home remedies are a long-running source of misinformation on social media. The latest iteration is a claim about ginger.

"Did you know? Ginger wraps can eliminate the mucus from your lungs overnight," reads the text of a Facebook post shared Dec. 8.

An image in the post shows a purple cloth with grated ginger placed on top of a toddler's chest. The post generated close to 2,000 likes and 1,000 shares in less than two days.

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But the claim is baseless.

There is no scientific evidence to prove that ginger wraps can clear mucus overnight, experts told USA TODAY. 

USA TODAY reached out to the Facebook user for comment. 

The claim in the post overstates the power of ginger, according to Dr. Lauren Eggert, clinical assistant professor in the division of pulmonary, allergy and critical care medicine at Stanford University.

"There is very limited evidence that ginger may have some anti-inflammatory properties, but I don't see how putting it on the skin and using it overnight would eliminate mucus," Eggert told USA TODAY.

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Dr. Richard Boucher, director of the Marsico Lung Institute at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, told USA TODAY in an email that he "cannot think at all of a mechanism by which such a therapy would be effective."

Mucus is formed in the lungs all the time, Boucher said. 

"It is designed to form on airway surfaces, trap anything bad that we inhale, (like) viruses and bacteria, and then be mechanically cleared from the lung to the throat to be swallowed and eliminated by the GI (gastrointestinal) tract," Boucher said.

The body naturally clears out mucus, Eggert said. Cilia, which are hair-like projections on the walls of the airways, push mucus that has trapped foreign particles towards the central airway so it can be coughed out. 

"When you cough out mucus, that's a healthy, normal response to get rid of inhaled particles in the airway that your body wants to get rid of," Eggert said.

Mucus buildup, however, can occur when the cilia dysfunctions, seen in respiratory infections, or through mucus viscosity, seen in patients with asthma, according to Dr. Joe Zein, pulmonologist at Cleveland Clinic. Viscosity means the mucus is thickened and slower to flow, resulting in the buildup. 

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"Mucus build-up can cause airway obstruction, asthma or collapse of part of the lungs, (called) atelectasis," Zein told USA TODAY via email. "Excess mucus can become a source of infection, which results sometimes in exacerbations of airway diseases." 

If somebody is concerned that they may be producing excess mucus, they should be evaluated by their physician, according to Eggert. Doctors use multiple tools, including saline and nebulizers, chest physical therapy and a flutter valve to open airways to release the mucus.

Dr. Gary Soffer, an allergist-immunologist at Yale Medicine, said ginger can be useful when taken orally to relieve gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, but it is not useful for relieving mucus.

Based on our research, we rate FALSE the claim that ginger wraps can eliminate the mucus in your lungs overnight. There is no scientific evidence that ginger plays a role in the amount of mucus in the body, whether taken orally or topically.

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