In Vitro Antibacterial Efficacy of Essential Oils from Moroccan Plants Against Pathogenic Bacteria Isolated from Hospital Environment in Morocco

Abstract

Even if aromatic and medicinal plants have been used from ancient times as natural therapies and are considered as alternatives to synthetic drugs, scientific investigations to evaluate antimicrobial activity of Essential Oils (EOs) are needed. The aim of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activities of five EOs against pathogen bacteria as well as to compare its inhibitory effect versus commercial antibiotics. The essential oils has been obtained by hydrodistillation using a Clevenger apparatus and its has tested in vitro against bacteria isolated from surfaces in nephrology service at Ibn Al khatib Hospital in the Fez city, such as Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Enterobacter cloacae, Serratia liquefaciens and Pseudomonas aeruginosa using the paper disk agar diffusion method. The essential oils of Junniperus communis and Artemisia absinthium showed stronger antibacterial effects than the other essential oils. However the essential oil of Rosmarinus officinalis which has the smallest inhibition zone. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Serratia liquefaciens were found to be the most resistant species, Staphylococcus aureus was the most sensitive bacterial species to essential oils. Among the commercial antibiotics, Chloromphenicol had the widest coverage against all bacteria’s, followed by Gentamicin, but the Penicillin antibiotic has showed poor activity against all bacteria’s. Our results suggest that essential oils could be used for the development of new types of antibacterial agents and may therefore be used as therapeutic or disinfection compounds against these bacteria.