Effect of Essential Oils on Pathogenic Bacteria
Filomena Nazzaro, Florinda Fratianni, Laura De Martino, Raffaele Coppola, Vincenzo De Feo
Pharmaceuticals
Abstract
The increasing resistance of microorganisms to conventional chemicals and drugs is a serious and evident worldwide problem that has prompted research into the identification of new biocides with broad activity. Plants and their derivatives, such as essential oils, are often used in folk medicine. In nature, essential oils play an important role in the protection of plants. Essential oils contain a wide variety of secondary metabolites that are capable of inhibiting or slowing the growth of bacteria, yeasts and moulds. Essential oils and their components have activity against a variety of targets, particularly the membrane and cytoplasm, and in some cases, they completely change the morphology of the cells. This brief review describes the activity of essential oils against pathogenic bacteria.
Extracted Claims
2 claims extracted from this paper into the knowledge graph
essential oils inhibit or slow the growth of bacteria, yeasts, and moulds
“Essential oils contain a wide variety of secondary metabolites that are capable of inhibiting or slowing the growth of bacteria, yeasts and moulds.”
essential oils change the morphology of cells
“In some cases, they completely change the morphology of the cells.”