Chemical Composition of the Essential Oil of Mentha pulegium L. and its Antimicrobial Activity on Proteus mirabilis, Bacillus subtilis and Zygosaccharomyces rouxii

ABSTRACT: There is a growing interest in food industry to replace the synthetic chemicals by the natural products with bioactive properties from plant origin. The aim of this study was to determine the chemical composition of Mentha pulegium essential oil and to characterize the antimicrobial activities of the essential oil. The essential oil of Mentha pulegium was analyzed by GC-MS. The evaluation of the antimicrobial activity on Proteus mirabilis ATCC 15146, Bacillus subtilis ATCC 12711 and Zygosaccharomyces rouxii ATCC 14679 was determined by Minimum Inhibitory Concentration procedure. The sensitivity of microorganisms was also measured by disc diffusion and cup plate methods. The essential oil of Mentha pulegium revealed pulegone, cineole and piperitenone were the main constituents, comprising 19.89%, 19.38%% and 15.14% of the essential oil, respectively. The results showed a significant antimicrobial activity against microorganisms especially Bacillus subtilis, while the least susceptible microorganism was Zygosaccharomyces rouxii (P < 0.05). The minimum inhibitory concentration of the essential oil of Mentha pulegium was 0.5%, 1.25% and 1.5% for Bacillus subtilis, Proteus mirabilis and Zygosaccharomyces rouxii respectively. In this research work, Bacillus subtilis bacteria was more sensitive to the essential oil than Proteus mirabilis. In general, this study indicated that the essential oil of Mentha pulegium has remarkable antimicrobial activity on microorganism especially gram positive bacteria. Related researches are required to assess the efficacy of this essential oil in therapeutic applications.