Dihydro-5,6-dehydrokavain (DDK) is the major and most promising component of the tropical plant Alpinia zerumbet (shell ginger), a species of the ginger family Zingiberaceae. Alpinia zerumbet is known for its human use as a traditional herbal medicine, food, and dietary supplement. With its α-lactone ring, DDK belongs to the large chemical group of kavalactones, which are also found in kava (Pi...

Alpinia zerumbet is used in folk medicine in Brazil to treat hypertension. However, several pathways involved in the mechanism of vasorelaxation are still unclear. This study was designed to verify the antihypertensive effect of the methanolic fraction of the essential oil of A. zerumbet (MFEOAz) and to characterize its mechanism of action. The thoracic aortic rings from the Wistar rats were pe...

Ginger (Zingiber officinale) has been used as a digestive and circulatory medicine. The intent of this research is to further investigate the antimicrobial properties of ginger. Ginger juice was extracted from the root of the plant. The Kirby-Bauer technique using Mueller-Hinton agar was used to test ginger juice (Zingiber officinale) for antimicrobial properties. Zones of inhibition were measu...

A novel flavonoidic compound, 3,5-dihydroxy-4’,7-dimethoxyflavone, has been isolated from the rhizomes of Zingiber phillipseae. The dichloromethane extract of this species was shown to be non-toxic with LC50 for acute and toxic levels at 9,732 ppm and 562 ppm, respectively. The extract showed higher antioxidant activity than the standard (butylated hydroxytoluene, BHT) but lower than dichlorome...

zerumbone is a cytotoxic compound isolated from the herbal plant, zingiber zerumbet smith, which exhibits antitumor activity [1-2], anti-inflammatory effects and possesses anti-proliferative potentials in a variety of cell lines [3-4]. dna fragmentation indicates an early event of apoptosis leading to cell death due to the absence of new cellular proteins synthesizing for cell survival. previou...

We investigated the effects of zerumbone, a natural cyclic sesquiterpene, on hepatic lipid metabolism in Syrian golden hamsters fed on high-fat diet (HFD). After being fed HFD for 2 weeks, hamsters were dosed orally with zerumbone (75, 150, and 300 mg kg(-1)) once daily for 8 weeks. After treatment with zerumbone, the plasma levels of total cholesterol (TC) and triglycerides (TGs) and the conte...

ginger plant, zingiber officinale roscoe, is an important tropical plant used as spices and well known for its medicinal properties. it has a pungent and aromatic rhizome rich of zingiberen and gingerols. many secondary metabolites are known to accumulate in the plant cell culture systems. so, in this research, gingerols and zingiberene production of callus cultures were compared with regenerat...