Ethnobotanical and Phytochemical Studies on Indigenous Zingiber spp. (Zingiberaceae) from Tambunan District, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia

Abstract

Studies on the ethnobotany and phytochemical on three species of wild Zingiber (Zingiberaceae) namely Z.Z. pseudopungens, Zingiber chlorobracteatum and Zingiber coloratum were conducted in Timbou Village, Tambunan District, Sabah, Borneo, Malaysia, Alab Mount and Mahua waterfall, Crocker Range from 1st Oct. until 7th Oct 2019. The objectives of these studies were to survey the ethnobotanical uses of the three wild Zingiber species used by the local Dusun communities of Tambunan, to extract essential oils from the major Zingiber species and lastly to determine the chemical components in the essential oils and to test it against bacteria. Ethnobotanical uses for these three Zingiber species are as follow, Z. pseudopungens leaves and stem are bitter; Z. viridifalvum sap is drinkable, medicine as anti-venom for snake-bite, pith cooked as soup and whole plant is for decorations and Z. coloratum plant is used as decorations, rhizome boiled made into soup and medicinal to treat diabetes. In this study, the preliminary phytochemical screening in both polar extract of ethanol and non-polar extract of n-hexane showed the presence of major secondary metabolites in these 3 types of studied Zingiber spp. GC-MS profiling gave the composition of few major compounds. Moreover, antibacterial assays of these oils had demonstrated that the Gram-positive bacteria in this study were more sensitive to the Zingiber spp. samples compared to the Gram-negative bacteria.