Determination of Antimicrobial Activity of Essential Oils in Some Medicinal Plants

This study was conducted to determine effect of essential oil of certain medicinal and aromatic plants on bacteria and performed in akdeniz university in 2014. in this study; firstly, essential oils of thyme (origanum onites), rosemary (rosmarinus officinalis) and sweet herb (stevia rebaudiana) were obtained by hydrodistillation method. the antibacterial effects of essential oils were investigated on some bacteria (staphylococcus aureus atcc 25923, enterococcus faecalis atcc 29212, pseudomonas aeruginosa atcc 27853 enterobacter cloacae atcc 23355, serratia marcescens atcc 8100, klebsiella pneumoniae atcc 13883, escherichia coli atcc 25922, salmonella typhimurium atcc 14028). the antimicrobial effects of oils were evaluated according to the disk diffusion method. as a result; particularly thyme oil showed antibacterial activity against all bacteria tested. while rosemary oil was effective on all bacteria except p. aeruginosa, sweet herb oil has been found to be effective against only s. aureus and e. faecalis strain. according to these results; the highest antimicrobial activity was recorded in thyme oil and the lowest activity was determined in sweet herb oil.