Lippia alba (Mill.) N.E. Essential Oil Interfere with Aminoglycosides Effect Against Staphylococcus aureus

• Published in: Journal of essential oil-bearing plants (Dehra Dun) Vol. 14; no. 5; pp. 574 - 581
• Main Authors: Veras, Helenicy N.H, Campos, Adriana R, Rodrigues, Fabíola F.G, Botelho, Marco A, Coutinho, Henrique D.M, Costa, José G.M. da
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taylor & Francis Group 2011
• Subjects: acetates; aminoglycosides; chemical composition; essential oil; essential oils; gas chromatography; gentamicin; geranial; infectious diseases; leaves; Lippia alba; mass spectrometry; microorganisms; modulatory activity; neral; shrubs; Staphylococcus aureus; tea
• ISSN: 0976-5026; 0972-060X; 0976-5026
• DOI: 10.1080/0972060X.2011.10643974

Lippia sp. essential oils have been popularly used to treat infectious diseases and some studies have shown their effect on microorganisms control. Lippia alba (Mill.) N.E. Brown, known as “cidreira”, is a shrub easily found in Brazilian Northeast. The traditional use of their leaves, used as tea to treat some affections, justify the investment in further investigations. This work reports the L. alba essential oil chemical composition and its aminoglycosides modifying effect against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 6538, S. aureus ATCC 25923 and S. aureus ATCC 12692. The essential oil was obtained by hydrodistillation (yield of 0.52 %) and the GC-MS analysis identified the main constituents: Geranial (31.4 %), Neral (29.5 %), β-elemene (16.5 %) and geranyl acetate (13.3 %). It was verified that the essential oil interfered with all tested aminoglycosides. The antibiotic activity of gentamicin against S. aureus ATCC 25923 was enhanced (275 %) in the presence of 12 % essential oil. The 3 % essential oil increased the effect against S. aureus ATCC 25923 (41.6 %) and S. aureus ATCC 6538 (58.3 %).