Efficacy of Cymbopogon Citratus against Clinical Important Pathogens

• Main Author: Yew, Xin Ying
• Format: Thesis
• Language: English
• Published: 2017
• Subjects: TP Chemical technology
• Online Access: http://eprints.intimal.edu.my/950/1/126.pdf; http://eprints.intimal.edu.my/950/
• Institution: INTI International University

Antibiotic resistance started to develop within a few years after the use of antibiotics. Antibiotic resistance has become a major problem worldwide, and has impacted patients emotionally and financially. This overuse of antibiotics, inappropriately prescribed or improper use of antibiotics have caused bacteria to develop resistance. In order to overcome antibiotic resistance, alternative therapeutic agents should be investigated. Cymbopogon citratus possesses various pharmacological activities including antibacterial activity, which is useful in treating multidrug resistant bacterial infections. The antibacterial property is due to the presence of resistance modifying agents that are present in the plant. In this study, multidrug resistance bacterial isolates that have been collected from healthy individuals in INTI International University were identified and confirmed. Aqueous and methanolic extracts of C. citratus in treating multidrug resistant bacterial infections. Moreover, different parts of C. citratus were used to examine the difference in antimicrobial activity. The inhibition zones were measured and compared among the different extracts and C. citratus essential oil, which act as positive control. The extracts also compared with the antibiotics commonly used to treat multidrug resistant bacterial infections. In this experiment, C. citratus essential oil showed the greater antimicrobial activity than methanolic extract due to the fact that the methanolic extract was not concentrated enough while boiled extract did not exhibit any antimicrobial activity. The C. citratus extract also exhibited better antimicrobial activity in gram positive bacteria than in gram negative bacteria, with the exception of P. aeruginosa which showed a high susceptibility towards the methanolic extracts. Thus, C. citratus could have the potential use in the treatment of biofilm development related infections.