The antimicrobial activity of essential oils from different species of lime, lemon and orange against oral pathogens
International Journal of Development Research
The antimicrobial activity of essential oils from different species of lime, lemon and orange against oral pathogens
Received 03rd April, 2022 Received in revised form 11th May, 2022 Accepted 27th June, 2022 Published online 30th July, 2022
Copyright © 2022, Fernando Luis Macedo et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
This study investigated in vitro the antimicrobial activity against oral pathogens of essential oils (EOs) from different species of lime, lemon, and orange. The EOs were chemically characterized by gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrophotometry (GC-MS) and tested for their antimicrobial activity (MIC and MBC/MFC) against Candida spp., Fusobacteriumnucleatum, Porphyromonasgingivalis, Prevotella intermedia, Streptococcus mutans, Streptococcus mitis and Streptococcus sanguinis. Data were analyzed descriptively and by one-way analysis of Variance (ANOVA) considering a 5% significance level (P < 0.05). Limonene was the major compound tentatively identified in the samples. Among the EOs, C. sinensis showed lower MIC values against C. krusei, C. albicans and C. tropicalis. Nystatin showed MIC of 0.125 mg/mL against all Candida spp. strains and MFC values ≥ 1 mg/mL. C. sinensis EO and chlorhexidine showed MIC/MBC values against bacterial strains ranging from 1 to 8 mg/mL and 2 to 8 mg/mL, respectively. To conclude, C. sinensis EO was the most effective sample against Candida spp. Overall, the EOs showed weak antibacterial activity with bacteriostatic effects, except for C. latifolia, which showed strong antimicrobial activity against P. intermedia.C. sinensis EO showed bactericidal effects against S. mitis.
