Abstract

Antimicrobial effect of Artemisia vulgaris essential oil

Author(s): Bhoj Raj Singh, Vidya Singh, Raj Karan Singh, Saroj Toppo, Nazrul Haque and N. Ebibeni

Antimicrobial effect Artemisia vulgaris essential oil (AVEO) was evaluated on 616 strains of 84 different pathogenic, potentially pathogenic and environmental microbial species belonging to 29 different genera using disc diffusion method on Mueller Hinton agar. A clear zone (>8 mm) of inhibition around a 5mmdisc containing 50 µg essential oil indicated its antimicrobial activity. Only 20.9% strains were sensitive toAVEO, however all strains of Candida albicans, Kluyvera cryocrescens, Leminorella ghirmontii, and Micrococcus agilis and majority (>75%) of Bacillus spp. were sensitive to the oil. On the other hand majority of the enterobacteria including Escherichia coli, Salmonella enterica, Klebsiella spp, Edwardsiella spp. strains and grampositive cocci (staphylococci, streptococci)were resistant toAVEO. All the five strains of Aspergillus niger but none of the six strains of A. flavus were sensitive to AVEO. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of AVEO was determined through agar dilutiommethod ranged between ï‚£ 1µg to 32µg/ ml for sensitive strains while none of the resistant strain could be inhibited to growat the level below128 µg/ml. Detailed analysis of the results revealed that AVEO may contain considerable antifungal and antibacillary activity which may be exploited for enhancing its therapeutic value in its already known medicinal uses.