Antibacterial, anti-oxidant and in vitro anticancer analysis of Zingiber officinale (L.) Rosc.

Abstract

Ginger is considered as an important spice with many clinical potential activities. The present study was undertaken to determine antimicrobial, antioxidant and in vitro anticancer activities of rhizome extract of Zingiber officinale. Antimicrobial activity was tested against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Vibrio cholera, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Entero toxigenic Excherichia coli (ETEC) and Salmonella typhi by disc diffusion assay. Antioxidant activity was determined by DPPH free radical scavenging assay and ABTS free radical scavenging assay. The ethanolic extract showed more activity against Vibrio cholera, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, ETEC and Salmonella typhi  at 5–25 mg/well.  The extract also exhibited dose dependent scavenging of DPPH and ABTS radicals. Scavenging of DPPH radicals was more efficient than that of ABTS radicals as revealed by the low IC₅₀ value. MCF-7 breast cancer cells were used to investigate the in vitro anticancer activity of ethanol extracts of ginger. The inhibitory activity of the extracts against MCF-7 was carried out using colorimetric tetrazolium salt (MTT) assay. The results showed considerable anticancer activity in MCF–7 cancer cells, with an IC₅₀ value of 10 µg/ml. Ginger extract effectively inhibited proliferation of MCF-7 cells in a dose-dependent manner over 24h. Thus the compounds of ginger displaied potential for antioxidant, antibacterial and anticancer agents.