European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF LEMONGRASS (CYMBOPOGON FLEXUOSUS) OIL AGAINST SOME SELECTED PATHOGENIC BACTERIAS.

Archana Vaishnava* and Susweta Samanta

ABSTRACT

In this study the lemon grass oil was extracted from the plant sources Cymbopogon flexuosus antibacterial activity. Results of this study showed that most antibacterial effect of lemon grass and essence was against Gram positive bacteria. According to the considerable antibacterial effect of methanol extract of lemon grass leaves on pathogenic bacteria especially Gram positive bacteria that are involved in creating variety of nonsocial and malicious infections this extract can be considered as a natural antibacterial herbal product. Finally it is concluded that the mixture of lemon grass oil is used to treat bacterial infections. It is concluded that, in the present study, the plant contains potential antibacterial components that may be useful for evolution of pharmaceutical for the therapy of ailments. The antimicrobial activity was determined by well diffusion method. The activity was determined for different concentration of lemon grass oil against Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus. Both Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus subtalis had the highest microbial sensitivity and this inhibitory effect increased with increasing methanol extract concentration. Also results obtained showed that growth inhibitory effect of methanol extract of lemon grass oil on tested Gram negative bacteria was very low, so that no growth inhibition effect on the Proteus valgaris and detected slight inhibitory effect against Escherichia coli at the highest extract concentration used (120 mg/ml concentration). These results indicated that among tested bacteria in term of sensitivity to methanolic dilution of lemon grass oil there was a significant difference.

Keywords: Antibacterial activity, lemongrass oil, Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria.