Comparación de la eficacia antibacterial del aceite esencial de limonaria (Cymbopogon citratus) y agentes desinfectantes frente a Enterococcus faecalis. Estudio in vitro.

Abstract

The essential oils (AE) are mixtures of chemical substances extracted from plants, they are composed by terpenes, sesquiterpenes and their oxygenated derivatives such as aldehydes, alcohols, esters among others. (Guala, Pérez, Barducco, Marsó, & Elder, 2012). They are mainly used in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic industries and have biological properties such as antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral and antioxidant (Ochoa, Paredes, Bejarano, & Silva, 2012). The present work has as purpose to evaluate the disinfecting power of essential oil of Lemongrass (Cymbopogon citratus) obtained by the steam distillation method, as a disinfectant agent against Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212, bacteria present in the environment, food and in the microbiota of man and animals. Also, the chemical characterization of the essential oil of Lemongrass was performed by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometry (GC-MS), the main major compounds in the essential oil according to the percentage of relative area were: geraniol 25,3%, citronellal 20,9% and citronellol 9,3%. The antimicrobial activity of the oil was evaluated by the plate microdilution technique in order to obtain the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), where the Lemongrass showed no activity against E. faecalis. In turn, the disinfectant power of Lemongrass against reference compounds was carried out by the methodology recommended by the AOAC. The obtained results indicated that the essential oil of Lemongrass and sodium hypochlorite showed an efficiency of 100% inhibiting the growth of E. faecalis in the evaluated concentrations and determined times, in comparison with chlorhexidine. It was concluded that the essential oil of Lemongrass presented an efficiency of 100% in the inhibition of the microorganism.