In vitro antibacterial activity of some plant essential oils

By S. Prabuseenivasan, M. Jayakumar, S. Ignacimuthu. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 2006

970 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Background:To evaluate the antibacterial activity of 21 plant essential oils against six bacterial species.Methods:The selected essential oils were screened against four gram-negative bacteria (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris) and two gram-positive bacteria Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus at four different concentrations (1:1, 1:5, 1:10 and 1:20) using disc diffusion method. The MIC of the active essential oils were tested using two fold agar dilution method at concentrations ranging from 0.2 to 25.6 mg/ml.Results:Out of 21 essential oils tested, 19 oils showed antibacterial activity against one or more strains. Cinnamon, clove, geranium, lemon, lime, orange and rosemary oils exhibited significant inhibitory effect. Cinnamon oil showed promising inhibitory activity even at low concentration, whereas aniseed, eucalyptus and camphor oils were least active against the tested bacteria. In general, B. subtilis was the most susceptible. On the other hand, K. pneumoniae exhibited low degree of sensitivity.Conclusion:Majority of the oils showed antibacterial activity against the tested strains. However Cinnamon, clove and lime oils were found to be inhibiting both gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. Cinnamon oil can be a good source of antibacterial agents.

Subfields: Food Science, Plant Science

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2954fa7b829211ee29f8953f87aad0aae26703b9

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In Food Science

1. Victor Kuete1
2. Pongsak Rattanachaikunsopon
3. P. Phumkhachorn

In Plant Science

1. Victor Kuete1
2. Pongsak Rattanachaikunsopon
3. P. Phumkhachorn

Citations in the corpus

• Potential of cinnamon (Cinnamomum verum) oil to control Streptococcus iniae infection in tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) (2010, background): “[28], who worked with cinnamon bark oil from India, and Schmidt et al.”
• Essential Oils in Combination and Their Antimicrobial Properties (2012, background): “The antimicrobial activity of the EO of Cinnamomum zeylanicum has been related to its cinnamaldehyde content [45], though cinnamaldehyde-containing oils (non-phenolic) showed lower antimicrobial activities than eugenol oils [44].”
• Cinnamon: A Multifaceted Medicinal Plant (2014, background): “To date, several antimicrobial activities of cinnamon and its oils have been reported in various studies [20, 28, 115].”
• Potential of Cameroonian Plants and Derived Products against Microbial Infections: A Review (2010, background): “For example, cinnamon oil has shown broad-spectrum activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa [36].”