Cytotoxicity and Anti-microbial Activity of Aqueous Methanolic Extract of Zingiber officinale Roscoe (Zingiberacae)

Abstract

Aim: The current study evaluates the cytotoxic Activity of aqueous methanolic extract from Ginger (Zingiber officinale Roscoe, Zingiberacae) against five human cancer cell lines (lung carcinoma cell line) (A549-1), Caco-2 (Colon carcinoma cell line), HepG2 (liver carcinoma cell line), Hep2-2 (larynx carcinoma cell line) ,PC3 (Prostate carcinoma cell line),using sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay method and study its antimicrobial activities against two species of pathogenic bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus and Pseudomonas aeruginosa), two fungal species (Aspergillus and Fusarium) and one (Candida albicans) as yeast species, identification of the phenolics and flavonoids  content by using HPLC. Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted in the Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Science, Zagazig University, Zagazig, Egypt and pharmacology animal health researcher institute, provincial Lab. Zagazig, Sharkia, Egypt. During the period between December 2015 and December 2016. Methodology: The cytotoxic activity was assessed using sulforhodamine B (SRB) assay. Antimicrobial activity was tested by the paper disc diffusion technique. Paper chromatography and HPLC analysis were used to prove the presence of the major phenolic and flavonoid compounds. Results: The methanolic extract of ginger gave cytotoxic activity against five human cancer cell lines the most potent cytotoxic activity which causes the death of 50% of the tumor cells With IC50 19.1 µg/ml is lung (A549-1), followed by Colon (Caco-2) with IC50 21.7 µg/ml, liver (HepG2) with IC50 22.5 µg/ml , larynx (Hep2-2) with IC50 is 29.0  µg/ml , Prostate (PC3) IC50 is 30.2 µg/ml, with SRB assay, and antimicrobial activity was determined by measuring the inhibition zone (in mm) activity against two species of pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus aureus with (31.7), Pseudomonas auroginosa with (25.3), and three species of fungi Fusarium with (29.3) followed by Candida albicans with (28.3) then Aspergillus sp. with (25.3). HPLC analysis identify major phenolic compounds; vanillic, ellagic, pyrogallol, salicylic, caffeic and ferulic while the major flavonoid compounds were luteolin-6-arabinose-8-glucoside, kaempferol-3-glucoside-2''-p-coumaroyl, apigenin-6-rhamnosyl-8-glucoside, naringin , hesperidin and acacetin as well. Conclusion: The results in this work demonstrate that the extract of the selected medicinal plant (Zingiber officinale Roscoe, Zingiberacae) contains considerable amount of beneficial bioactive phenolic and flavonoid compounds which let the plant used as good candidate for novel therapeutic strategies due to its significant anticancer and antimicrobial activities.