Antimicrobial Activity of Tea Tree oil against Pathogenic Bacteria and Comparison of Its Effectiveness with Eucalyptus Oil, Lemongrass Oil and Conventional Antibiotics

Abstract

Tea Tree oil (TTO) is known to have antibacterial effects and this study was aimed to determine the abilities to control pathogenic bacteria and also compared the antimicrobial effectiveness of Eucalyptus oil (ECO), Lemongrass oil (LGO) and antibiotics those are using for bacterial infection. This study of antimicrobial activity against ten pathogenic bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus pyogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris, Aeromonas hydrophila, Escherichia coli, Streptococcus pneumoniae, Bacillus subtilis, Klebsiella pneumonia and Streptococcus agalactiae was done by Broth dilution method and Agar well diffusion method. The essential oils used in this study were commercially available. The inhibition of bacterial growth after 24 hours incubation exhibits greater results than 6 hours incubation in most of the cases. After 24 hours incubation, TTO showed minimum 96.94% against E. coli and maximum 100% inhibition against seven bacteria selected for this study whereas ECO showed minimum 37.02% against E. coli and maximum 100% inhibition against S. aureus, P. vulgaris and A. hydrophila and the another essential oil that is LGO exhibited minimum 69.08% against E. coli and maximum 100% inhibition against five bacteria chosen for this study. The inhibition zones from each extract were measured and an activity index was calculated from the mean zone sizes. All Essential oils showed some degree of antimicrobial properties with the highest activity index (1.6) being from TTO against S. agalactiae. At last, established a comparison between tea tree oil and some broad spectrum antibiotics using well diffusion method. Tea tree oil exhibited observable zone against all the bacteria contrariwise, among nine antibiotics only two of them showed noticeable zone of inhibition to all the bacteria tested. According to this study, TTO has demonstrated remarkable antibacterial activity which was more efficient than ECO and LGO and, moreover, it is expected that TTO will gradually take place of conventional antibiotics to treat bacterial infection.

Nano-Chitosan/Eucalyptus Oil/Cellulose Acetate Nanofibers: Manufacturing, Antibacterial and Wound Healing Activities

“…However, the lowest MIC and MBC values (16.0 and 256.0 μg/mL, respectively) were detected against the S. aureus strain ( Table 2 ). Similar results were reported by Mumu and Hossain [ 39 ], who mentioned that EO showed maximum (100%) inhibition activity against S. aureus , P. vulgaris and A. hydrophila. On the other hand, Aldoghaim et al [ 40 ] stated that Eucalyptus oils showed variable antimicrobial activity against the tested microorganisms and A. baumannii was the most sensitive microorganism, followed by S. enterica Typhimurium and E. coli , while the MIC index proved the cidal effect of Eucalyptus oil [ 40 ].…”

“…The possible potent antimicrobial mechanisms underlying the observed susceptibility can be explained by the differences in the outer membrane composition of the tested microorganisms [46]. Another possibility is the presence of certain oil components such as 1,8-cineole which can increase the permeability of the cytoplasmic membrane [39]. Behbahani et al [47] studied the antimicrobial activities of carboxy methyl cellulose (CMC) films containing different Eucalyptus camaldulensis leaf extracts against some pathogens and reported that aqueous and alcoholic extracts were quite effective at a 2000 µg/mL concentration against Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus epidermidis.…”

“…Furthermore, human volunteer studies showed that (when used appropriately) the oil showed low allergenicity and toxicity [50]. More clinical research will be needed to identify the antibacterial properties of Eucalyptus oil to demonstrate its applicability as a therapeutic agent [39]. The percentage of proliferative cells in the scratch borders or in peripheral areas of the monolayer was measured.…”

Factors Affecting Antibacterial and Antifungal Properties of Microemulsion Gel containing Tea Tree Oil

“…The tea tree oil microemulsion prepared according to our previous publications [3] According to previous reports, the antibacterial and antifungal activities of the preparations were evaluated using agar well diffusion methods [4]. Each plate of agar contained microemulsion and conventional emulsioncontaining Tea Tree Oil and 3% Tween as a surfactantpreparations incorporated into different gelling agents to examine the activity of the preparations against Propionibacterium acnes, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans.…”

Enhancing the Functional Properties of Tea Tree Oil: In Vitro Antimicrobial Activity and Microencapsulation Strategy

“…The agar diffusion method is commonly used as a quick test to determine the potential susceptibility or resistance to an antibiotic. The results can be compared with those of Mumu (2018) [25], where inhibition zones were observed by TTO against clinical bacterial isolates after 24 h of incubation. Although the study shows that TTO is effective against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains, our study found inhibition values higher than those found in this study for S. aureus isolates.…”