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.

No abstract

No abstract

Plant wastes present a high cellulose content, which is an ideal organic material for composting. Five strains of thermophiles from processed Brassica waste were isolated, and the hydrolytic activity on various cellulosic biomass substrata and their temperature profiles were determined. 16S rRNA sequencing identified these strains as Thermoactinomyces and Bacillus spp. Maximal cellulase activity corresponded to 2.3 U mL -1 of enzyme. The application of these strains on Brassica rapa residues demonstrates increased total nitrogen content). TA-3, a Thermoactinomycetes sp. strain, performs best among all inoculants, increasing the nitrogen content from 0.74 to 0.91%, and decreasing the carbon content from 15.4 to 12.2%, showing its high efficiency and bioactivity during compositing. Key words: cellulose degrading, enzymes, vegetable wastes ATIVIDADE DE CELULASE DE TERMOACTINOMICETOS E BACILLUS spp. ISOLADOS DE RESÍDUOS DERIVADOS DE COMPOSTOS DE BRASSICARESUMO: Resíduos vegetais apresentam alta concentração de celulose, que é um material orgânico ideal para preparação de composto. Cinco linhagens de termófilos foram isoladas de resíduos processados de Brassica e a atividade hidrolítica em vários substratos contendo celulose e seus padrões de temperatura foram determinados. O seqüenciamento de rRNA 16S permitiu a identificação dessas isolados como Thermoactinomyces e Bacillus spp. A atividade máxima de celulase foi determinada como de 2,3 U mL -1 de enzima. O uso dessas linhagens em resíduos de Brassica rapa resultou em um aumento total do conteúdo de nitrogênio. TA-3, uma linhagem de Thermoactinomycetes sp., apresentou melhor desempenho entre os inoculantes, aumentando o conteúdo de nitrogênio de 0,74 para 0,91%, e diminuindo o conteúdo de carbono de 15,4 para 12,2%, mostrando sua alta eficiência e bioatividade durante a compostagem. Palavras-chaves: degradação de celulose, enzimas, resíduos vegetais

The archaeal community composition of Yangmingshan National Park in northern Taiwan was investigated by 16S rRNA and fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). Optimization of tetrameric restriction enzyme (TRE) was performed to achieve efficient digestion and differentiation in the restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) fragments, and AciI, BstUI and RsaI were shown to be the optimal TREs for TRE-RFLP. Nine clones were obtained in the studies, with clones M70 and M6 being found to be phylogenetically affiliated to Sulfolobus and Caldisphaera in domain Crenarchaeota, respectively, whereas seven other clones were found to be affiliated to an uncultured and unidentified archaeon isolated from thermoacidic environments. In FISH, soil and water region cells were hybridized with DAPI (4 0 , 6-diamidino-2-phenylindole) and specific fluorescently labelled probes. 15.69 and 7.16% of the DAPI-stained cells hybridized with universal archaeal probe ARC915 and sulphate-reducing bacterial probe SRB385, respectively.