Antimicrobial activity of eugenol and essential oils containing eugenol: A mechanistic viewpoint

Abstract

Eugenol is a hydroxyphenyl propene, naturally occurring in the essential oils of several plants belonging to the Lamiaceae, Lauraceae, Myrtaceae, and Myristicaceae families. It is one of the major constituents of clove (Syzygium aromaticum (L.) Merr. & L.M. Perry, Myrtaceae) oil and is largely used in both foods and cosmetics as a flavoring agent. A large body of recent scientific evidence supports claims from traditional medicine that eugenol exerts beneficial effects on human health. These effects are mainly associated with antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities. Eugenol has also shown excellent antimicrobial activity in studies, being active against fungi and a wide range of gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria. The aim of this review is to analyze scientific data from the main published studies describing the antibacterial and antifungal activities of eugenol targeting different kind of microorganisms, such as those responsible for human infectious diseases, diseases of the oral cavity, and food-borne pathogens. This article also reports the effects of eugenol on multi-drug resistant microorganisms. On the basis of this collected data, eugenol represents a very interesting bioactive compound with broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against both planktonic and sessile cells belonging to food-decaying microorganisms and human pathogens.

Lignin as Sustainable Antimicrobial Fillers to Develop PET Multifilaments by Melting Process

“…For reducing the diffusion of the antibacterial agent in the environment, the mass functionalization by extrusion and melt spinning process seems to be the best way to obtain durable textile. Some bio-based agents as chitosan [11] or eugenol [12], present interesting antibacterial activity. Chitosan, obtained after a deacetylation of chitin which is structural element in the crustaceans exoskeleton, may interact with the bacteria membrane and damage it.…”

“…Indeed, chitosan can alter permeability of membrane cell leading to release of the protein material and other intracellular components and can be accompanied by some lysis of the cell [11]. Eugenol, major constituent of cloves, is effective against a wide range of bacteria, Gram-negative as E. coli, P. vulgaris or Gram-positive as S. aureus [12]. However, a lot of these agents cannot be used for extrusion because of their degradation temperature too low during this step.…”

Chemical composition, antibiotic promotion and in vivo toxicity of Piper nigrum and Syzygium aromaticum essential oil

“…Briefly, they disrupt the bacteria membrane destabilizing the cell activities related to energy conversion, structural macromolecule production, nutrients processing and hence induce growth reduction or microbial death (Oussalah et al, 2006;Swamy et al, 2016). The major activity of S. aromaticum as compared to P. nigrum is mainly due to the presence of eugenol that has largely been studied and in which literature has been recently reviewed by Marchese et al (2017). This compound has demonstrated a large spectrum antibacterial and antifungal effect, as well as antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity.…”

Antibacterial and Antifungal Activities of Ocimum Gratissimum L.

“…Brazilian and Asian races contain phenylephrine (eugenol) as the chief constituent [27][28][29] along with sesquiterpene (caryophyllene), monoterpenes (β-ocimene) [25], bornyl acetate and some non terpene components [30]. There is scientific evidence about the eugenol which is a hydroxy phenylpropene possessing significant antimicrobial activity against bacteria and fungi mainly human pathogens, multi-drug resistant and food spoilage microorganism [31]. Moreover, plant flavonoids and tannins which are an important constituent of O. gratissimum, possess unique antibacterial activities against the plant and human bacterial pathogens as reported in earlier studies either in the same or other plants oil [32][33][34].…”

“…Plant oil collected during a pre-flowering stage at 7 am shows high activity against S. aureus with MIC 0.24 mg/ml [57]. The concentration-dependent plant oil exhibit strong antibacterial action against food contaminating Bacillus cereus [29] and ethanolic leaves extract in 250 mg/ml of plant oil proved best in inhibiting food borne pathogenic bacteria Listeria monocytogenes [31]. Similar results were also obtained by other studies that exhibit an effective inhibition of Salmonella enterica [30], L. monocytogenes [25,58], along with two other bacterial strains Listeria innocua and S. aureus [58].…”