Abstract
Mentha piperita L. essential oil (EO) is employed for external use as antipruritic, astringent, rubefacient and antiseptic. Several studies demonstrated its significant antiviral, antifungal and antibacterial properties. The aim of this work is the study of the synergistic effects of M. piperita EO with antibacterials and antifungals that are widely available and currently prescribed in therapies against infections. The observed strong synergy may constitute a potential new approach to counter the increasing phenomenon of multidrug resistant bacteria and fungi. In vitro efficacy of the association M. piperita EO/drugs was evaluated against a large panel of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and yeast strains. The antimicrobial effects were studied by checkerboard microdilution method. The synergistic effect of M. piperita EO with gentamicin resulted in a strong growth inhibition for all the bacterial species under study. The synergistic effect observed for M. piperita EO and antifungals was less pronounced.
Highlights
Bacterial resistance to antibiotic therapy is a growing emergency [1]
The strong synergy observed between gentamicin and the essential oil (EO) against the Gram-negative Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 and Klebsiella pneumoniae ATCC 19833 is worthy of note
This paper describes a study regarding the association of M. piperita EO with several antimicrobial agents against a large panel of bacteria and fungi strains
Summary
Several research programs have focused on designing new compounds possessing potential antimicrobial activity in order to avoid this problem [2,3,4,5,6]. Especially plant-derived antimicrobial compounds, have been extensively studied in recent years [7,8]. Plant-derived EOs are natural mixtures of a certain complexity. At times, they may contain more than 100 components at quite different concentrations. They may contain more than 100 components at quite different concentrations These components encompass two groups of distinct biosynthetic origin: the main group includes terpenes and terpenoids, while the other one includes aromatic and aliphatic
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