Instituto Nacional de Pesquisa da Amazônia, Coordenação de Tecnologia e Inovação, Av. André Araújo - 2936 - Petrópolis, Manaus, Amazonas, 69067-375, Brazil.
Instituto Leônidas e Maria Deane, Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Rua Teresina, 476 - Adrianópolis, Manaus, AM, 69057-070, Brazil.
BMC Complement Altern Med. 2018 Nov 13;18(1):301. doi: 10.1186/s12906-018-2360-0.
Essential oil obtained from rhizomes of the Zingiber zerumbet (L.) Smith (popularly known in Brazil as bitter ginger) is mainly constituted by the biomolecule zerumbone, which exhibit untapped antimicrobial potential. The aim of this study was to investigate the antimicrobial activity of the zerumbone from bitter ginger rhizomes against the cariogenic agent Streptococcus mutans.
Firstly, the essential oil from rhizomes of Zingiber zerumbet (L.) Smith extracted by hydrodistillation was submitted to purification and recrystallization process to obtain the zerumbone compound. The purity of zerumbone was determined through high-performance liquid chromatography analysis. Different concentrations of zerumbone were tested against the standard strain S. mutans (ATCC 35668) by using microdilution method. The speed of cidal activity was determined through a time kill-curve assay. The biological cytotoxicity activity of zerumbone was assessed using Vero cell line through MTT assay.
The zerumbone showed a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 250 μg/mL and a minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of 500 μg/mL against S. mutans. After six hours of bacteria-zerumbone interaction, all concentrations tested starts to kill the bacteria and all bacteria were killed between 48 and 72 h period at the concentration of 500 μg/mL (99,99% of bacteria were killed in comparison with original inoculum). In addition, zerumbone showed no cytotoxicity activity on mammalian continuous cells line.
These results draw attention to the potential of zerumbone as antimicrobial agent against S. mutans infection, indicating its possible use in the phyto-pharmaceutical formulations as new approach to prevent and treat tooth decay disease.
姜科植物郁金（在巴西俗称苦味姜）的根茎中提取的精油主要由生物分子莪术烯组成，具有未开发的抗菌潜力。本研究旨在研究苦味姜根茎中的莪术烯对致龋剂变形链球菌的抗菌活性。
首先，通过水蒸馏法从郁金根茎中提取精油，然后对其进行纯化和重结晶，以获得莪术烯化合物。通过高效液相色谱分析确定莪术烯的纯度。通过微量稀释法测试不同浓度的莪术烯对标准菌株变形链球菌（ATCC 35668）的作用。通过时间杀伤曲线试验确定杀菌活性的速度。通过 MTT 试验评估莪术烯对非洲绿猴肾细胞系的生物细胞毒性活性。
莪术烯对变形链球菌的最小抑菌浓度（MIC）为 250μg/mL，最小杀菌浓度（MBC）为 500μg/mL。在细菌与莪术烯相互作用六小时后，所有测试浓度均开始杀死细菌，并且在 500μg/mL 浓度下，所有细菌在 48 至 72 小时期间被杀死（与原始接种物相比，杀死了 99.99%的细菌）。此外，莪术烯对哺乳动物连续细胞系没有细胞毒性活性。
这些结果引起了人们对莪术烯作为抗变形链球菌感染的抗菌剂的潜力的关注，表明其可能在植物药制剂中用作预防和治疗龋齿疾病的新方法。
