>Evaluation of Antibacterial Activities of Citrus

limon, Citrus reticulata, and Citrus grandis Against

Pathogenic Bacteria1

Date Published: November 15, 2016

Author/s: Sholeh Saeb, Mansour Amin3, Reza Seyfi Gooybari, Nasrin Aghel41

Bacteria are considered as the main cause of illness and diseases iin many developing countries,
especially amongst children.1Luckily, there are some microorganisms that are supine to
microorganism but there are some not and are continuously and rapidly spreading. Because of this,
it needs and urgent and effective need for novel antimicrobial compounds.

The genus Citrus belongs to the family Rutaceae and has many biologically active secondary
metabolites. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the antimicrobial activity of essential oil and
extract of Lemon (Citrus limon), Mandarin (Citrus reticulata), and Pummelo (Citrus grandis) against
Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, and Salmonella typhi1by agar disk diffusion
and E-test method to test the antimicrobial susceptibility of Cutrus leaf metabolites.

The researchers used fresh Citrus leaves were shade-dried and powdered. Then, their antimicrobial
metabolites were extracted by 80% methanol, and a Clevenger-type apparatus was used for essential
oil. Eight different concentrations of each leaf extract and essential oil were prepared and assayed
against 4 bacterial strains.

After all the procedures, the results show that the extracts had no antimicrobial effect on tested
bacteria. In this study, the antibacterial effect of essential oil of Citrus leaves on four strains of
pathogenic microorganisms was confirmed. The C. grandis leaf essential oil had the most powerful
antimicrobial properties, suggesting its potential application as natural preservative in foods or an
effective medicine against different pathogenic microbes. 1