The rhizomes of the Zingiberaceae family are a vegetable widely used in many Asian countries, and their medicinal functions have been broadly discussed and accepted in many traditional recipes. In this study, 18 species of five genus of Zingiberaceae plants from Taiwan area were collected and analyzed for their functional properties. Methanolic extracts of the plants were analyzed for their total phenol compounds, alpha,alpha-diphenyl-beta-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging activity, and reducing power. Antimicrobial activity of these samples was also determined. The results showed that the total phenol compounds of the Alpinia genus averaged 17, 30 mg/g for Curcumas, and the highest, 36.5 mg/g for Vanoverberghia sasakiana. Antioxidant performances were best observed in Vanoverberghia and Hedychium, both 89%, and DPPH scavenging activity followed similar trends. Particularly, Zingiber oligophyllum, considered as a traditional medicinal plant used in Taiwan exhibited low DPPH scavenging activity and reducing power. Most Zingiberaceae plant extracts exhibited antimicrobial activity against all tested food microorganisms. Hedychium and Vanoverberghia, did not show antimicrobial activities on Escherichia coli and Vibrio parahaemolyticus. This study is a positive demonstration of the utility of screening Taiwan's endemic Zingiberaceous plants for their food and medicinal uses.

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The present study assesses the feasibility of noni as a raw substrate for the production of probiotic noni juice by lactic acid bacteria (Lactobacilluscasei and Lactobacillus plantarum) and bifidobacteria (Bifidobacteriumlongum). Changes in pH, acidity, sugar content, cell survival and antioxidant properties during fermentation were monitored. All tested strains grew well on noni juice, reaching nearly 10⁹ colony-forming units/ml after 48 h fermentation. L.casei produced less lactic acid than B.longum and L. plantarum. After 4 weeks of cold storage at 4°C, B.longum and L. plantarum survived under low-pH conditions in fermented noni juice. In contrast, L.casei exhibited no cell viability after 3 weeks. Moreover, noni juice fermented with B.longum had a high antioxidant capacity that did not differ significantly (P <0.05) from that of lactic acid bacteria. Finally, we found that B.longum and L. plantarum are optimal probiotics for fermentation with noni juice.

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A Gram-staining negative, motile, non-spore-forming, short rod-shaped (0.8-1.5¾1.5-2.0 mm), halophilic bacterium, designated strain NTU-107 T , was isolated from brine samples collected from the abandoned Beimen saltern in southern Taiwan. The novel strain grew with 0-15 % (w/v) NaCl (optimum between 5 % and 10 %), at 15-55 6C (optimum 40 6C) and at pH 5.5-9.5 (optimum pH 7.5). The major cellular fatty acids were C 18 : 1 v7c, C 16 : 0 and C 19 : 0 cyclo v8c, the genomic DNA G+C content was 66.5 mol%, and the predominant ubiquinone was Q-9. The major polar lipids included phosphatidylglycerol, diphosphatidylglycerol and phosphatidylethanolamine. In a phylogenetic analysis based on 16S rRNA gene sequences, strain T clustered with members of the genus Halomonas. In hybridization experiments, however, the levels of DNA-DNA relatedness between strain NTU-107 T and the type strains of its closest phylogenetic neighbours (Halomonas koreensis, H. organivorans and H. ventosae) were all found to be less than 40 %. Based on the phenotypic, chemotaxonomic and genetic data, strain NTU-107 T represents a novel species within the genus Halomonas, for which the name Halomonas beimenensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is NTU-107 T (5BCRC 17999At the time of writing, the family Halomonadaceae (Franzmann et al., 1988), which belongs to the class Gammaproteobacteria, comprises nine genera with names that have been validly published: Halomonas, Aidingimonas, Chromohalobacter, Cobetia, Carnimonas, Halotalea, Modicisalibacter, Kushneria and Zymobacter (Ventosa et al., 1989;Okamoto et al., 1993; Dobson & Franzmann, 1996;Garriga et al., 1998;Arahal et al., 2002; Ben Ali Gam et al., 2007;Ntougias et al., 2007). The genus Halomonas was originally proposed, with Halomonas elongata as the sole species, to accommodate a group of extremely halotolerant strains (Vreeland et al., 1980 Martínez-Cánovas et al., 2004). Their principal fatty acids are C 16 : 1 cis9, C 16 : 0 , C 17 : 0 cyclo, C 18 : 1 and C 19 : 0 cyclo 11-12, and the major isoprenoid quinone is ubiquinone-9 (Q-9) (Franzmann & Tindall, 1990). Some members of the genus Halomonas have potential use in biotechnology (Margesin & Schinner, 2001;Ventosa & Nieto, 1995), such as in the production of hydrolytic enzymes (Sánchez-Porro et al., 2003) and the degrading of aromatic compounds (García et al., 2004 ): 5 g yeast extract (Difco), 5 g Casamino acids (Difco) and 5 g MgSO 4 . 7H 2 O. The pH of the basal medium agar was adjusted to pH 7.0 with 1 M NaOH. The plates were incubated at 37 u C for 7 days. Anaerobic growth was examined by incubating plates in an anaerobic chest with an AnaeroPack (Mitsubishi Gas Chemical). After strain NTU-107 T was isolated, its salt tolerance was tested in liquid basal medium containing 0-30 % (w/v) NaCl. Liquid basal medium was also used to determine the novel strain's temperature range for growth (by incubating at temperatures between 10 and 70 u C) and its pH range for growth (by incubating in medium that had been adjusted, with 0.1 M NaOH or ...

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