Ginger, a widely used functional food and food additive, little is known about the effect of ginger juice, which is rich in many healthful agents, on healthy humans or on its relationship with gut microbiota composition variation. The aim of this study was to investigate the changes in the gut microbial communities that occur following the supplementation of fresh ginger-derived juice in healthy adults and its potential associations with function. A crossover intervention study in which 123 healthy subjects (63 men and 60 women) consumed fresh ginger juice from Zingiber officinale Rosc. or sterile 0.9% sodium chloride was conducted. 16S rRNA sequencing analyses were applied to characterize gut microbiota variation. We found that ginger juice intervention increased the species number of intestinal flora. A decreased relative abundance of the Prevotella-to-Bacteroides ratio and pro-inflammatory Ruminococcus_1 and Ruminococcus_2 while a tendency toward an increased Firmicutes-to-Bacteroidetes ratio, Proteobacteria and anti-inflammatory Faecalibacterium were found. When we did not consider gender, we found differences in bacterial diversity both in community evenness and in richness caused by ginger intervention. In fact, there were different changes in bacterial α-diversity induced by the ginger juice in men and women. We identified 19 bacterial genera with significant differences between the control group (women) and ginger group (women) and 15 significant differences between the control group (men) and ginger group (men) at the genus level. Our results showed that short-term intake of ginger juice had substantial effects on the composition and function of gut microbiota in healthy people. Moreover, our findings underscored the importance of analyzing both male and female individuals to investigate the effects of ginger on gut microbiota. Additional studies are necessary to confirm these findings.

Meat from dairy goats is less tender than that from meat goats since generally they are of an older age when culled. The objective of this study was to improve the quality of barbecued culled-dairy-goat by using juices (ginger and pineapple) and sodium bicarbonate (SB). The optimum time (30, 60, 90 min) for marinating the goat meat with ginger and pineapple juices was evaluated. Then, the optimum levels of SB (0, 1, 3, 5%) and the optimum marinating procedure for the application of SB was studied. The results showed that the ginger-marinated samples had a lower cooking loss than the pineapple-marinated samples. The optimum time for marinating the samples with plant juices was 60 min indicated by the lower hardness and chewiness as compared to those of the samples marinated with plant juices for 30 and 90 min. The cooking loss and L* values of the marinated samples significantly decreased with increasing concentrations of SB. The lowest hardness were observed in the samples marinated with pineapple juice containing 3% SB and ginger juice containing 5% SB. The samples marinated with pineapple juice for 60 min and then marinated with a barbecue sauce containing 3% SB for 60 min had a lower cooking loss and hardness as well as higher scores for all sensory attributes compared to the non-juice-marinated meat with SB and the ginger-marinated meat. The results indicate that pineapple juice and SB (3%) can improve the quality of culled dairy-goat-meat, and in particular its texture.