Antimicrobial activity of the rhizome essential oil of Zingiber officinale Roscoe

Abstract

The antimicrobial activity of the rhizome essential oil of Zingiber officinale (family: Zingiberaceae) was tested against six std. bacteria: Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus vulgaris, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and against two std. fungi namely Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans using the cup plate agar diffusion method. The rhizome essential oil of Z. officinale dissolved in methanol (1:10), showed high activity against the Gram pos. S. aureus (23 mm), B. subtilis (20 mm), Gram neg. E. coli (21 mm), P. vulgaris (20 mm) and P. aeruginosa (27 mm). It also showed moderate activity against the Gram neg. K. pneumoniae (15 mm), C. albicans (16 mm) and no activity against Aspergillus niger. The rhizome oil was also tested against sixty clin. isolates, collected randomly from Khartoum and Soba Hospitals. The min. inhibitory concns. (MICs) of the essential oil against std. bacteria were detd. using the agar diffusion method. The antimicrobial activity of the ref. drugs were detd. against the std. organisms and compared with the antimicrobial activity of the tested oil. The obtained results showed variable sensitivity against the organisms tested and confirmed its folkloric uses. [on SciFinder(R)]