The activity of thyme essential oil against Acinetobacter spp.

Abstract

Abstract The aim of this work was to investigate the antimicrobial properties of thyme essential oil against clinical multiresistant strains of Acinetobacter spp. The antibacterial activity of oil was tested against standard and clinical bacterial strains of Acinetobacter genus. The agar diffusion method was used to check the inhibition of microbial growth at various concentrations of the oil from Thymus vulgaris. Susceptibility testing to antibiotics and chemotherapeutics was prepared using the disc-diffusion method. Identification of bacterial strains was carried out with the Vitek system and confirmed by PCR for Acinetobacter baumanii gyrB gene. The results of experiments showed that the oil from T. vulgaris exhibited an extremely strong activity against all of the clinical strains of Acinetobacter. Thyme oil demonstrated a very good efficacy against multiresistant strains of tested bacteria. Essential oils seems to be an excellent alternative for synthetic preparations and that is reason for an extensive assessment of their antimicrobial activity.