Comparative studies of Zingiber officinale leaves and rhizomes on the antibacterial effect

Abstract

Phytochemicals are chemical compounds that occur naturally in plants. Different parts of a plant such as leaf,
stem, root, flower or seed, contain different phytochemicals or various concentration of phytochemicals. These
chemical compounds may have biological significance like antioxidants or antibacterial. This study was
conducted to investigate the comparative effect of ginger (Zingiber officinale) rhizomes and ginger leaves on
bacteria. The plants were extracted by percolation technique using soxhlet extractor. All extracts were tested
against four bacterial strains which included gram positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Bascillus spp.) and gram
negative (Escherichia coli and Salmonella spp.) bacteria using disc diffusion method. In this research
gentamicin 10 μg were used as the antibacterial standard. The antimicrobial activity of the active extract was
evaluated quantitatively using three different concentrations. The concentration of the leaves extract and
rhizome extract had significant effect on the zone of inhibition for all the bacteria. The result from this study
showed ginger rhizome has more antimicrobial activity than ginger leaves and it can be used alongside
conventional antibiotic to fight infections.