ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF ESSENTIAL OIL OF Cymbopogon citratus (D.C.) Stapf. (CAPIM- SANTO) AGAINST Staphylococcus aureus AND Escherichia coli

Abstract

This work aimed to evaluate the antimicrobial potential of essential oil (EO) from leaves of Cymbopogon citratus (D. C.) Stapf. on Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli and to verify the possible synergism and/or antagonism of the EO when combined with the antimicrobials vancomycin and chloramphenicol. The extraction of the EO was performed with the Clevenger extractor system. For the tests, strains of S. aureus and E. coli were used, which were activated and maintained in the Microbiology Laboratory of UNEB, Campus X. The testes were performed using Petri dishes containing Müller-Hinton Agar and applying the disc-diffusion methodology. Analyses were performed using three dishes containing the EO extracted by the Clevenger. In each dish, suspensions of S. aureus were plated and six discs were deposited: a white disc with saline solution (negative control); one disc of the antimicrobial vancomycin (positive control), and four discs with different concentrations (1.0, 0.5, 0.25 and 0.125) of the diluted EO in Tween 80. The same procedure was applied for the test against E. coli, using the chloramphenicol antimicrobial. Results show that there was antimicrobial activity of the EO against S. aureus and E. coli. The analysis of the combination of EO with antimicrobials suggests that there was no synergistic or antagonistic action, both with vancomycin and chloramphenicol. In conclusion, the results of this work show that the EO of Cymbopogon citratus (D. C.) Stapf. presents antimicrobial activity against S. aureus and E. coli.