Abstract:
Essential oils and their constituents have a long history as antimicrobial agents,
however their use as antimicrobial additives in the agri-food field has been rarely reported. This work
aims to make a contribution to the demonstration of the antimicrobial and antifungal activity of the
essential oils of some aromatic plants.
In a first step, this study focuses on the extraction of these metabolites from
autochthonous plants from the Algerian West namely Salvia officinalis L. and Artemisia alba herba L.
by the hydrodistillation process.
In a second step, our work focused on demonstrating the antibacterial and antifungal
activity of these oils on pathogenic bacterial and fungal strains, the most incriminated in intestinal and
nosocomial infections (Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida albicans) using
the antibiogram and aromatogram metho
The diameters of inhibition obtained for Staphylococcus aureus are 9 mm with a
MIC of 0.25% concentration of essential oils and for Pseudomonas aeruginosa are 8 mm for a MIC of
0.1.25%, whereas for Candida albicans the diameter inhibition is 47 mm for a MIC of 0.00098% .In
the case of using the essential oils of dry leaves of Artemisia herba alba L.
In the case of essential oils of dry leaves of sage (Salvia officinalis L), the diameters of
inhibition are of the order of 9 mm for Staphylococcus aureus for a MIC of 0.5% and for Candida
albicans, they are 10 mm for a MIC of 0.0156%.
On the other hand, the action of the essential oil of Salvia officinalis L. even at a
concentration equal to or greater than 2% was insufficient to stop the growth of bacteria and yeasts tested
The yield in essential oils of Salvia officinalis is around 0.27% and that of Artemisia
herba alba is 0.39%.
