Estudo da atividade antimicrobiana do óleo essencial de capim limão e suas frações para produtos de higiene corporal

Abstract

Essential oils are natural substances composed of terpenoids and fenilpropanics molecules, which have various biological actions such as antifungal, antibacterial, anthelmintic, antineoplastic, among others. Based on the strong antimicrobial activity of essential oils and strong appeal for products without artificial preservatives, this work aims to develop antimicrobial agents of natural origin for both conservation and to exert antimicrobial activity in body care products using Cymbopogon citratus essential oil (EO) extracted by steam distillation. To increase the antimicrobial activity of the EO against microorganisms two different methods of fractionation were used the vacuum distillation and a step of pre-fractionation. All samples were analyzed by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC/MS). After analysis, antimicrobial activity experiments of the against: Salmonella Choleraesuis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Different samples of fractions were selected and different soaps have been formulated, and after, tested for determination of antimicrobial activity. In these tests it was possible to observe the viability of change synthetic preservatives by preservatives from natural products origin, was also evident the need for greater use of procedures for the enrichment of natural products