Antimicrobial properties of some herb essential oils

The essential oils of sage, turmeric, thyme, mustard and fenugreek showed antimicrobial activity against S. typhimurium, B. cereus, E. coli and A. flavus, turmeric exhibiting high potency and fenugreek only weak activity. The oils from mustard, sage and fenugreek had only one active component, while sage oil and turmeric oil had two and four active components respectively. The four active turmeric components, identified as borneol, cymene, cuparene and careen, each exhibited strong antibacterial activity at concentrations of 20 mg/mL and strong antifungal and anti-aflatoxigenic activity in the range 50-100 mg/mL.