Determining the Antimicrobial Activities of the Essential Oils of Some Taxa Used as Thyme

Abstract

Many aromatic plant species that belong to the Lamiaceae family are defined as “thyme” in Turkey, and the species that contain “carvacrol” and “thymol” in the essential oil of these plants are accepted as “thyme”. Among them, Origanum, Satureja, and Thymbra genera have great importance in terms of distribution and economics. The present study was conducted to determine in vitro the antimicrobial effects of the essential oils obtained from Thymbra spicata L., Satureja cuneifolia Ten., Satureja hortensis L., Origanum onites L. and Origanum majorana L. species through hydroxylation method on the pathogenic bacteria of Salmonella enteritidis (ATCC 13075), Enterococcus faecalis (ATCC 29212), Enterobacter aerogenes (ATCC 13048), Staphylococcus aureus subsp. aureus (ATCC 25923), Escherichia coli (ATCC 25922), and Serratia marcescens (ATCC 13880), which are resistant to many drugs. The essential oils that constituted the study material were extracted in the Neo-Clevenger device and their antimicrobial activity against gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria was investigated by using the Standard Agar Well Diffusion Test Method. It was found that the T. spicata, S. cuneifolia, S. hortensis, O. onites, and O. majorana species had antibacterial activity varying between 8.43±1.00-26.53±2.50 mm against six test strains. The fact that T. spicata species had higher antibacterial activity against all pathogens compared to standard antibiotics is important in terms of using and culturing this species and is the most striking finding of the present study.

Keywords

• Antimicrobial activity
• Thyme
• Origanum
• Satureja
• Thymbra

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