Bioactive compounds and pharmacological activities of Zingiber cassumunar from Eastern India

Zingiber cassumunar is a medicinal plant with valuable rhizome product used in pharmaceutical industry for wide beneficial health effects in curing various diseases. The current study aims to analyze compounds present in rhizome oil using Gas Chromatography-Time of Flight-Mass Spectrometry method. The plant rhizomes were collected for essential oil extraction using Clevenger apparatus by hydrodistillation method. From analysis, 99 constituents were found which showed major compounds as eucalyptol (10.61%), linalool (9.60%), l-Proline, n-propargyloxycarbonyl-, propargyl ester (8.58%), zerumbone (8.43%) and isoborneol (7.16%) respectively. The methanol, ethanol and aqueous plant extracts using Soxhlet apparatus of Zingiber cassumunar were assayed for antimicrobial and antioxidant content. Antimicrobial activities of plant extracts against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Candida albicans using disc diffusion method, revealed the highest zone of inhibition against Candida albicans in ethanol extract as 26 mm. Antioxidant activity was most potent in ethanolic extract, showing better IC50 values than methanolic and aqueous extracts in both 2,2-diphenyl-1- picrylhydrazyl (81±0.97 μg/ml) and 2,2′-azino-bis-(3- ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid (69±0.25 μg/ml) assay. The rhizome extracts showed strong antimicrobial activity and rich antioxidants content. Hence, the present study revealed the presence of good quality oil and extracts that could be used to commercialize Zingiber cassumunar rhizome in the global market.