THE PHYTOCHEMICAL SCREENING AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITIES OF A MEDICINAL PLANT ZINGIBER OFFICINALE

An antimicrobial is a substance that kills or inhibits the growth of microbes such as bacteria, fungi, or viruses. Technically, antibiotics are only those substances that are produced by one microorganism that kill, or prevent the growth, of another microorganism. Staphylococcus aureus is the most common cause of staph infections such as pneumonia, meningitis, osteomyelitis endocarditis, Toxic shock syndrome (TSS), and septicemia. Antimicrobials include not just antibiotics, but synthetically formed compounds as well. Currently, bacterial resistance is combated by the discovery of new drugs. However, microorganisms are becoming resistant more quickly than new drugs are being found, thus, future research in antimicrobial therapy may focus on finding how to overcome resistance to antimicrobials, or how to treat infections with alternative means. Hence an attempt was made to identify some bioactive compounds which are having antibacterial properties from natural resources. Zingiber officinale which is used as a food material in our daily usage was used and compounds was separated through column chromatography and screened these compounds on several pathogenic bacteria. The inhibition of Staphylococcus aureus was done by using Ginger after isolation. Maximum inhibitory regions were observed with the treatment of Ginger on Pathogenic bacteria. We have measured the content in control, Carrier control and experiemental groups and found reduction in experiemental groups. DNA was isolated and DNA damage method was used to identify the activity.