Background : Ginger has been extensively used in foods and traditional medicines in Asian countries. Despite its frequent consumption in daily life, the mechanism of potential interactions between ginger components-drug has not been examined. To elucidate the mechanism of governing the effects of 6-shogaol, a primary constituent of dried ginger, on human cytochrome P450 (CYP) isoenzymes an incubation studies were carried out using pooled human liver microsome (HLM). Methods and Results : CYP isoenzyme specific substrate was incubated with multiple concentrations of inhibitor, HLM and cofactors. 6-shogaol showed a potent inhibitory effect on CYP2C9, CYP1A2 and CYP2C19 with half maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) values of 29.20, 20.68 and 18.78 μM respectively. To estimate the value of the inhibition constant (Ki) and the mode of inhibition, an incubation study with varying concentrations of each CYP isoenzyme-specific probe was performed. 6-shogaol inhibited CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 noncompetitively (Ki = 29.02 and 19.26 μM respectively), in contrast, the inhibition of CYP1A2 was best explained by competitive inhibition (Ki = 6.33 μM). Conclusions : These findings suggest that 6-shogaol may possess inhibitory effects on metabolic activities mediated by CYP1A2, CYP2C9 and CYP2C19 in humans.