Evaluation of reciprocal pharmaceutical effects and antibacterial activity of Bunium persicum essential oil against some Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria

Increasing uses of antibiotics against bacterial infections have resulted in emergence of antibiotic resistance so extensive studies have been done on new antimicrobial drugs with higher efficacies particularly herbal drugs. The aim of this study was to evaluate the reciprocal pharmaceutical effects and antibacterial activity of Bunium persicum essential oil against some Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria.
Bunium persicum essential oil was purified from its fruit, and was subsequently analyzed chemically by gas chromatography and mass spectroscopy. Disk diffusion method and MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration) determination method were used for the evaluation of the essential oil effects on some standard bacterial strains. To determine synergistic and antagonistic effects, bacterial strains were cultured on a medium containing essential oil and then antibiotic disks were placed on the medium.
Chemical analysis revealed the extracted essential oil to contain 13 different chemicals. According to disk diffusion method, the largest growth inhibitory zone belonged to Bacillus cereus with 45 millimeter diameter. MIC and MBC results showed that the essential oil has the most inhibitory and bactericidal effect on Escherichia coli. The synergistic and antagonistic surveys showed synergistic effects of essential oil on gentamicin against Escherichia coli, but these results were variable against other bacterial strains.
Bunium persicum essential oil, singly or in combination with other antimicrobial agents, can be effective in the treatment of microbial infections. Also this essential oil can strengthen the effects of some antibiotics which particularly propose its usefulness in antimicrobial resistance cases.