Alternative therapies in health and medicine 2007-01-01

Potential of rosemary oil to be used in drug-resistant infections.

Suaib Luqman, Gaurav R Dwivedi, Mahendra P Darokar, Alok Kalra, Suman P S Khanuja

Index: Altern. Ther. Health Med. 13(5) , 54-9, (2007)

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Abstract

To evaluate the antimicrobial activity potential of the essential oil of rosemary specifically for its efficacy against the drug-resistant mutants of Mycobacterium smegmatis, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans.Antibacterial, antifungal, and drug resistance-modifying activity was evaluated both qualitatively and quantitatively following disc diffusion and broth dilution assay procedures.The rosemary essential oil was found to be more active against the gram-positive pathogenic bacteria except E. faecalis and drug-resistant mutants of E. coli, compared to gram-negative bacteria. Similarly, it was found to be more active toward nonfilamentous, filamentous, dermatophytic pathogenic fungi and drug-resistant mutants of Candida albicans.Our findings suggest that characterization and isolation of the active compound(s) from the rosemary oil may be useful in counteracting gram-positive bacterial, fungal, and drug-resistant infections.