Exploration of Zingiber officinale effects on growth performance, immunity and gut morphology in broilers

The current study aimed to determine the effects of different levels of Zingiber officinale as a herbal feed additive on growth performance, carcass characteristic, serum biochemistry, total bacterial count (TBC), gut morphology, and immunological parameters of broilers. A total of 1500, day-old broiler chicks (Hubbard) were equally accredited to five treatment groups, each with six replicates (50 birds/replicate). Five experimental diets were prepared using basal diet i.e. with antibiotics positive control (PC), 3 g/kg ginger (group A), 6 g/kg ginger (group B), 9 g/kg ginger (group C) and without antibiotics negative control (NC). Group A and C showed significantly (p<0.05) higher feed intake (FI) as compared to other groups. Group C showed significantly (p<0.05) lower Total bacterial count (TBC) followed by group B as compared to NC. Carcass characteristics showed non-significant effects among different treatments. Mean villi length and width were significantly (p <0.05) higher in all ginger supplemented groups as compared to the control groups. Blood serum parameters including cholesterol, triglycerides, and low-density lipoproteins (LDL) were significantly (p<0.05) lower in groups B and C in comparison with the control groups. Whereas high-density lipoproteins (HDL) was significantly higher in group B as compared to the others. In conclusion, ginger supplementation @0.6% in the basal diet significantly improved growth performance and gut morphometry of broilers. It also showed a positive impact on cholesterol, triglycerides and gut microbes. Therefore, ginger could be a better substitute for antibiotic growth promoters.

First Report of Rhizome Rot Caused by Pectobacterium brasiliense on Ginger in China

In August 2020, ginger (Zingiber officinale) rhizomes (cv. Mianjiang) showing soft rot symptoms were observed in a field in Tayang Village, Fengrun District, Tangshan, Hebei Province (North China). The disease incidence in that field (15 ha in size) was more than 20%. Symptomatic rhizomes (brown and water-soaked) were surface-sterilized in 75% ethanol for 60 sec and then three successive rinses with sterile distilled water. Rhizomes were cut into pieces ca. 0.5 cm in length, and then were soaked in 500 µl 0.9% saline for 20 min. Aliquots (20 μl) of three tenfold dilutions of the tissue specimen soaking solution were plated onto the lysogeny broth (LB) medium. And LB plates were incubated at 28°C for 24 h. Five single colonies were picked from each LB plate and restreaked three times for purity. Endophytic bacteria were also isolated from asymptomatic rhizomes as control. The bacterial gDNA was extracted using the EasyPure Bacteria Genomic DNA Kit (TransGen Biotech, Beijing, China). The 16S rDNA region was amplified by PCR using the universal primer pair 27F/1492R (Weisburg et al. 1991) and sequenced. The results of BLASTN against NCBI nr of the 16S rDNA amplicons suggested that the most isolates (8/10) obtained from the rotten rhizomes belonged to the genus Pectobacterium, and few isolates (2/10) were Enterobacter spp.. Only Enterobacter spp. were isolated from asymptomatic rhizomes. Since all Pectobacterium isolates showed identical 16S rDNA sequence, thus, only two isolates were selected for further analysis. Pectobacterium isolates TS20HJ1 and TS20HJ2 (MZ853520, MZ853521) represent isolates from two plant individuals. To determine the species of the rhizome rot Pectobacterium isolates, multi-locus sequence analysis (MLSA) was performed with five housekeeping genes acnA, icdA, mdh, proA and rpoS (MZ994717-MZ994726) (Ma et al. 2007; Waleron et al. 2008), and a phylogenetic tree was reconstructed using RAxML v8.2.12 (github.com/stamatak/standard-RAxML). No sequence variation was observed at any MLSA locus between the two isolates. The result of phylogenetic analysis showed that the ginger rhizome isolates clustered with P. brasiliense type strain IBSBF1692T (Duarte et al. 2004; Nabhan et al. 2012). Ginger seedlings (cv. Mianjiang) were inoculated with the isolate TS20HJ1 by injecting 10 µl of bacterial suspensions (108 CFU·mL-1) into the rhizomes, or injected with 10 µl of 0.9% saline solution as control. The seedlings were grown at 28°C and 50% relative humidity. Ten days after inoculation, only the bacteria-inoculated rhizomes showed diseased symptoms resembling to those observed in the field. Bacterial colonies were obtained from the infected rhizomes and were identified with MLSA gene sequencing, fulfilling Koch’s postulates. P. brasiliense causes soft rot of a wide range of economically important crops (Oulghazi et al. 2021). To our knowledge, this is the first report of P. brasiliense causing rhizome rot of ginger in China. The rhizome rot caused 20-25% yield loss on average in Tangshan region in 2020, which poses a significant threat to the local ginger farming. Further research on epidemiology and disease management options is needed.

Morphological and Molecular Diversity of Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) Pathogenic Fungi in Chilga District, North Gondar, Ethiopia

Ginger diseases caused by fungal pathogens have become one of the most serious problems causing reduced production around the world. It has also caused a major problem among farmers in different parts of Ethiopia resulting in a huge decline in rhizome yield. However, the exact causative agents of this disease have not been identified in the state. Although there are few studies related to pathogenic fungus identification, molecular level identification of fungal pathogen was not done in the area. Therefore, this study was undertaken to isolate and characterized the fungal causative agent of ginger disease from the diseased plant and the soil samples collected around the diseased plant from Chilga district, Gondar, Ethiopia. Samples from infected ginger plants and the soil around the infected plant were collected. Culturing and purification of isolates were made using Potato Dextrose Agar supplemented with antibacterial agent chloramphenicol. The morphological characterization was done by structural identification of the isolates under the microscope using lactophenol cotton blue stains. Isolated fungi were cultured and molecular identification was done using an internal transcribed spacer (ITS) of ribosomal DNA (rDNA). A total of 15 fungal morphotypes including 11 Aspergillus spp. (73.3%), 2 Penicillium spp. (13.3%), and single uncultured fungus clone S23 were isolated from the samples representing all the plant organs and the soil. Aspergillus spp. (73.3%) was the most common and seems to be the major causative agent. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of ginger pathogenic fungi in Ethiopia identified using ITS rDNA molecular techniques. This study will lay foundation for the development of management strategies for fungal diseases infecting ginger.

Antimicrobial Efficacy of Glass Ionomer Cement in Incorporation with Biogenic Zingiber officinale Capped Silver-Nanobiotic, Chlorhexidine Diacetate and Lyophilized Miswak

In the present study, Zingiber officinale is used for the synthesis of Zingiber officinale capped silver nanoparticles (ZOE-AgNPs) and compares the antimicrobial efficacy and compressive strength of conventional glass ionomer cement (GIC) combined with ZOE-AgNPs, lyophilized miswak, and chlorhexidine diacetate (CHX) against oral microbes. Five groups of the disc-shaped GIC specimens were prepared. Group A: lyophilized miswak and GIC combination, Group B: ZOE-AgNPs and GIC combinations, Group C: CHX and GIC combination, Group D: ZOE-AgNPs + CHX + GIC; Group E: Conventional GIC. Results confirmed the successful formation of ZOE-AgNPs that was monitored by UV-Vis sharp absorption spectra at 415 nm. The X-ray diffractometer (XRD) and transmission electron microscope (TEM) results revealed the formation of ZOE-AgNPs with a mean size 10.5–14.12 nm. The peaks of the Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) were appearing the involvement of ZOE components onto the surface of ZOE-AgNPs which played as bioreducing, and stabilizing agents. At a 24-h, one-week and three-week intervals, Group D showed the significantly highest mean inhibitory zones compared to Group A, Group B, and Group C. At microbe-level comparison, Streptococcus mutans and Staphylococcus aureus were inhibited significantly by all the specimens tested except group E when compared to Candida albicans. Group D specimens showed slightly higher (45.8 ± 5.4) mean compressive strength in comparison with other groups. The combination of GIC with ZOE-AgNPs and chlorhexidine together enhanced its antimicrobial efficacy and compressive strength compared to GIC with ZOE-AgNPs or lyophilized miswak or chlorhexidine combination alone. The present study revealed that The combination of GIC with active components of ZOE-AgNPs and chlorhexidine paves the way to lead its effective nano-dental materials applications.

Antioxidant and Anticancer Activities of Anethum graveolens L., Citrus limon (L.) Osbeck and Zingiber officinale Roscoe Essential Oils

Since synthetic chemotherapeutic drugs produce a certain degree of drug resistance and due to their common side effects, such as damage to hematopoietic cells and hair loss, it is necessary to use herbal medicine as a substrate to develop new anticancer drugs. The ingredients of three essential oils (EO) were identified using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC-MS) analysis. Their anticancer activities have been investigated on four human breast cancer cell lines, including MCF-7, MDA-MB-175, MDA-MB-231, and MDA-MB-468. In addition, their antioxidant activity was evaluated using the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) assay. The three plants were investigated for identifications of the ingredients of their EOs, and major ingredients were identified in each plant as alpha-phellandrene (26.75 %) in Anethum graveolens L., limonene (61.83 %) in Citrus limon (L.) Osbeck, and zingiberene (30.28 %) in Zingiber officinale Roscoe. Among the EOs, C. limon was significantly more effective than others; its half-maximal inhibitory concentration (IC50) on MCF-7 was obtained at 201 µg.mL-1. Furthermore, Z. officinale EO showed a higher antioxidant activities in comparison to the two other EOs. Considering the antioxidant and anticancer effects of the EOs, they could be further investigated as a possible complementary medicine in cancer.

Effects of Pretreatment and Drying on the Volatile Compounds of Sliced Solar-Dried Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) Rhizome

Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe) rhizomes are mostly used as spice and medicine due to their high aroma intensity and medicinal bioactive compounds. However, the volatile compounds of ginger, partly responsible for its aroma and medicinal properties, can be affected by the pretreatment, drying method, and extraction processes employed. The objective of this study was to assess the effects of pretreatment and drying on the volatile compounds of yellow ginger variety at nine months of maturation. The effect of potassium metabisulfite (KMBS) and blanching pretreatment and drying on the volatile compounds of ginger using head space solid-phase microextraction with GCMS/MS identification (HS-SPME/GCMS/MS) was investigated. KMBS of concentrations 0.0 (control), 0.1, 0.15, 0.2, and 1.0% and blanching at 50°C and 100°C were used for pretreatment and dried in a tent-like concrete solar (CSD) dryer and open-sun drying (OSD). The different concentrations of KMBS-treated fresh ginger rhizomes did not result in any particular pattern for volatile compound composition identification. However, the top five compounds were mostly sesquiterpenes. The 0.15% KMBS-treated CSD emerged as the best pretreatment for retaining α-zingiberene, β-cubebene, α-farnesene, and geranial. The presence of β-cedrene, β-carene, and dihydro-α-curcumene makes this study unique. The 0.15% KMBS pretreatment and CSD drying can be adopted as an affordable alternative to preserve ginger.

Phytochemical, Pharmacognostic and Pharmacological Studies on Zingiber Officinale

Rhizomes of Zingiber officinale Roscoe. belonging to the family Zingiberaceae is used for bronchitis, as a carminative, for treating cough, cataracts and as a stimulant. The rhizome is cooked with salt and water and used as an expectorant. Extract of the juice of rhizome is used as eye-drops. In Yemen, it is mixed with other plants used for constipation, as a purgative, against colds, catarrh and acidity of the stomach. Root ginger is widely used for culinary purposes and as a spice. The rhizomes (imported from India) are used with cinnamon and cloves and made into a tea for treating colds and as a general tonic. The drink is also used as an aphrodisiac (Gazanfar, 1994). Ginger is useful in piles, rheumatism, headache, lumbago, pains, bleeding, chest congestion, cholera, cold, diarrhea, dropsy, nausea, stomachache, gastrointestinal disorders, vomiting, and diarrhea. The fresh juice of ginger acts as a strong diuretic. The juice of the leaves is effective against helminthiasis and marasmus and related conditions of diarrhea and dysentery (Monograph of Unani Medicine,2003).