Antimicrobial natural products

Our ethnopharmacological studies, in several Angolan regions, showed that Cymbopogon citratus (DC) Stapf., its applied in folk medicine to treat several diseases In order to validate antibacterial activity several studies were performed using 12 bacterial strains. The essencial oil samples of Cymbopogon citratus, obtained by hydro-distillation, were analysed by GC and GC-MS. Constituents were identified (1) and tested for their antimicrobial activity by the disc agar diffusion technique and the dilution technique against Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (ATCC 12228) and other bacterial strains. Broad spectrum antibacterial activity was exhibited by the Cymbopogon citratus essential oil against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria as well as for MRSA that exhibited more sensitive towards the test substance compared to the non-MRSA. Our work was the first to show that Cymbopogon citratus essential oil has higher antibacterial activity against MRSA strains, than commercial antibiotics. These discover opens a new hope to fight against nosocomial infection.