ANTIBACTERIAL EFFECT OF Zingiber officinale RHIZOME EXTRACT

Abstract

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) is an herbaceous, perennial flowering plant of Zin-giberaceae family whose rhizome is widely used as a spice or a folk medicine. This study was conducted to determine the antibacterial effect of ethanol extract of dried ginger powder using agar well diffusion method against both, gram-positive bacteria i.e. Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Streptococcus spp. And gram-negative bacteria i.e. Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella spp. The result showed the potent antibacterial activities of gin-ger extract against all test bacterial pathogens. Ginger purchased from local mar-ket of Itahari were washed, peeled, sliced and air dried for 15 days and then grounded to fine powder using mechanical blender. By soxhlet extraction tech-nique using ethanol as the solvent, the ginger extract was prepared. After differ-ent phytochemical tests of the extract, the antibacterial activities of ginger extract was tested using agar well diffusion technique. Similarly, to compare the zone of inhibition of ginger extract with that of antibiotics, antibiotics susceptibility tests were also done. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the extract was also determined by adding the different concentrations of extracts on bacterial swab at MHA agar plates. Ginger extract showed distinct antibacterial activity toward all six isolates on Agar well diffusion method. Ethanol extract of ginger showed highest zone of inhibition (22.0±1.1mm) against Streptococus spp. and lowest zone of inhibition (11.1±1.7mm) against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Gin-ger extract also showed lower zone of inhibition (15.2±1.10mm) against Staph-ylococcus aureus, compared to gram-negative bacteria. Lastly, comparison be-tween the effect of antibiotics and ginger extract on the bacterial sample were made and interpreted. Thus, from the result it is concluded that ginger have me-dicinal value and can be potential source for production of antibacterial drugs