TITLE:
Essential Oil of Grape Fruit (Citrus paradisi) Peels and Its Antimicrobial Activities
AUTHORS:
Wahab O. Okunowo, Olajumoke Oyedeji, Lukman O. Afolabi, Eniola Matanmi
KEYWORDS:
Antimicrobial; Bacteria; Essential Oils; Fungi; GC-MS; Grape; Inhibition
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.4 No.7B,
July
15,
2013
ABSTRACT: Plants and plant products
are continuously being explored in medicine against the increasing number of
antibiotic resistant
organisms. The antimicrobial activity of essential oil of some plants has been
demonstrated against a range of organism. This study aimed to determine the chemical constituents and the
antimicrobial effects of the oil of grape peels on some clinical isolates. The
oil was obtained from the peels by hydrodistillation procedure and analyzed
using Gas chromatography coupled to mass spectrometer. The in-vitro antimicrobial property of the methanolic, ethanolic and
tween 80 mixture of extract was determined by agar well diffusion method
against selected clinical bacterial isolates (Bacillus cereus, Enterococcus
faecalis, Escherichia coli, E. coli ATCC 25292, Klebsellia pneumonia, Pseudococcus sp., Salmonella typhmurium, Shigella
flexneri, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococus aureus ATCC 29213) and
fungal isolates (Aspergillus niger, Candida albican, and Penicillium chrysogenum). The
GC-MS analyses of the oil indicated the amount of the essential oil components was highest with D-Limonene
(75.05%), followed by β-myrene
(7.25%), α-pinene (2.11%),
caryophyllene (1.88%), octanal (1.68) and β-phellandrene
(1.18%). Some of the minor components included δ-cadinene
(0.89%), copaene (0.82%), methyl phthalate (0.54%), linalool (0.48%) and
3-carene (0.21%). The oil extracts exerted different degrees of inhibitory
activity against the organisms. The inhibition of the test isolates was
dependent on the dissolution solvent used. Methanolic oil mixture inhibited all
bacteria and fungi. Ethanol oil mixture inhibited the test bacteria and C. albicans while, the oil extract
dissolved in Tween 80 solution showed no inhibitory activity on the test fungi.
This study has shown that grape peels from Nigeria contain some antibiotic
principles which may be explored for use in the treatment of certain diseases.