Introduction
Ginger (
Zingiber officinale
) has been one of the most commonly consumed herbal medicines for a long time to treat several common diseases. Antibacterial activity, antioxidant properties and many bioactive compounds in ginger have been identified previously, which could be used as an alternative method to treat many infectious diseases.
Methods
The current study evaluates ginger’s biochemical profile using qualitative and quantitative analysis and its bioactive potentials using antioxidant and antimicrobial assays against
Streptococcus mutans
and selective oral microbes. HPLC analysis was performed for the quantitative analysis. DPPH and disc diffusion assays were used for antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. The antimicrobial activity was checked against
Streptococcus mutans, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus
spp., and
Lactobacillus
spp. All solvents were removed by rotary evaporation before testing the dried extracts.
Results
The observed IC
50
value showed that distilled water extract exhibited the highest antioxidant activity (43.9), followed by ethanol extract (52.4), and the lowest activity was observed in
n
-butanol extract (91.2) and
n
-hexane (90.6). Different plant extracts have shown significant antibacterial activity (
p
= 0.001) against each bacterium. The highest antibacterial activity against tested bacteria was observed in
n
-hexane, chloroform and ethanol extracts. In comparison, the ethyl acetate,
n
-butanol and water extracts showed low antibacterial activity.
Conclusion
This study emphasizes that
Zingiber officinale
(
Z. officinale
) against Gram-positive bacteria is an effective antimicrobial herb. Furthermore, it can be used as a potential natural source of antioxidants. Further studies on the toxicity analysis of ginger are recommended.
COVID-19 is an infectious disease caused by a newly discovered coronavirus. Most patients infected with the COVID-19 virus experience mild to moderate respiratory symptoms and heal without any special treatment. This survey aimed to assess the knowledge of Syrian and Saudi populations about the general information, symptoms, and methods of prevention of coronavirus (COVID-19).
Materials and Methods:
A standardized questionnaire composed of four sections (demography, general information about COVID-19, symptoms of COVID-19 infection, and methods of prevention) including 34 questions divided between the four mentioned sections were sent online to different social media in the Syrian Arab Republic and Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a Google drive form. The collected data were coded, computerized, and analyzed using methods of descriptive statistics by SPSS 25. A Chi-square test was done.
Results:
The total number of participants was 790; most of them were in the age group of 18–30 years (60.3%) wherein females formed about 59.2% of the whole sample. About 94.6% of the respondents from Syria agreed that several coronaviruses are known to cause respiratory infections while 45.6% of Saudi people knew that diarrhea is one of the symptoms of coronavirus (COVID-19). The good results of this current study were clear in the section of coronavirus (COVID-19) prevention as most of the information was correct in more than 60% of answers.
Conclusion:
The knowledge of Syrian and Saudi populations about the general information, symptoms, and methods of prevention of coronavirus COVID-19 was very good to excellent except in very limited points.
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