Evaluation of antibacterial properties of some essential oils from Vietnam

Abstract Natural products have attracted attention from scientists because of their potential to replace antibiotics in the near future. Thanks to Vietnam’s richness in biodiversity, this study aimed at evaluating antibacterial activity of eleven essential oils from various plants. These essential oils were collected from various plants across Vietnam such as corn mint, clove, clove basil, eugenol, tea tree, terpinen-4-ol, kaffir lime, Mexican mint, rosemary, Homalomena occulta, and betel. By chemical reaction and fractional vacuum distillation method, eugenol and terpinen-4-ol was isolated from clove basil and tea tree oils with the content reaching up to 97.0% and 95.8%, respectively. The antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli of essential oils was determined by disk diffusion and broth dilution method. As a result, Mexican mint oil and eugenol exhibited high antibacterial properties with low MICs and MBCs (62.5 to 125 uL/L), whereas other essential oils (clove, clove basil, betel, tea tree, terpinen-4-ol) had higher MIC and MBC values ranged from 125 to 500 uL/L.