Avaliação da atividade microbiológica e citotóxica do óleo essencial de Cymbopogon winterianus Jowitt ex Bor

Abstract

The increasing frequency of resistant microorganisms in healthcare institutions, has shown the need for searching new molecules that may allow an improvement in the treatment of infections caused by pathogens resistant to conventional prophylaxis. Aromatic plants and their essential oils have been used for centuries as a flavoring in the manufacture of cosmetics and perfume, and pharmacologically for medicinal purposes, which has stimulated the search for biologically active substances and effective, especially on microorganisms. The essential oils plants of the genus Cymbopogon and its constituents are known for having antimicrobial activities, anthelmintic, antiparasitic, anti-inflammatory, anticonvulsant and antioxidant. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate in vitro the biological activity of the essential oil of Cymbopogon winterianus medicinal plant, popularly known as citronella. The methods used were: disk diffusion test, minimum inhibitory concentration and bacterial growth curve (indirect method) against reference strains from the American Type Culture Collection (ATCC) - Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212, Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Staphylococcus epidermidis ATCC 12228, Staphylococcus simulans ATCC 27851, Entrobacter cloacaceae ATCC 23355, Proteus mirabilis ATCC 15290 Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Serratia marcescens ATCC 14756, Escherichia coli ATCC 35211 - and strain from clinical isolate - Staphylococcus aureus 53581, apart from cytotoxicity assays by the method of tretazólio dye reduction (MTT), using Vero cell line. The citronella oil presented antibacterial activity against Gram-positive strains tested whereas Gram-negative strains used in this study were resistant. In the study of cytotoxicity results indicated that cell viability remained above 100%, indicating that this oil had no cytotoxicity of the cells under study at the concentrations evaluated.