Premium
Antimicrobial action of essential oils : the effect of dimethylsulphoxide on the activity of cinnamon oil
Author(s) -
Hili P.,
Evans C. S.,
Veness R. G.
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
letters in applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.698
H-Index - 110
eISSN - 1472-765X
pISSN - 0266-8254
DOI - 10.1046/j.1472-765x.1997.00073.x
Subject(s) - antimicrobial , library science , classics , art , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , computer science
Fifty‐one essential oils extracted from plants of known origin were tested for their antimicrobial activity against three bacteria, Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Staphylococcus aureus , Escherichia coli and four yeasts, Torulopsis utilis , Schizosaccharomyces pombe , Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae using the drop diffusion method. All showed antimicrobial activity against at least one of the micro‐organisms. Following this preliminary screening, 13 essential oils showing antimicrobial activity against at least five of the micro‐organisms were tested in the range 50 μg ml −1 to 500 μg ml −1 using broth micro dilution techniques with dimethylsulphoxide (DMSO) as a dispersing solvent. The concentration of most of the oils required for total inhibition of growth was >500 μg ml −1 . Further studies on the antimicrobial action of cinnamon oil in the range 10–150 μg ml −1 showed that 50‐fold higher activity was found when no dispersing solvent was used.