Introduction: The aim of our study was to determine the antibacterial activity of cinnamon bark oil against Gram-positive and Gram-negative isolates belonging to Staphylococcus, Enterococcus, Enterobacter and Acinetobacter genera come from different clinical specimens.
Methods: The microdilution method was used to determine the minimum inhibitory concentration--MIC for cinnamon bark oil. Susceptibility testing to antibiotics was carried out using disc-diffusion method.
Results: Our investigations showed that the tested cinnamon bark oil was inhibiting activity against all isolates. The MIC for Gram-positive bacteria were between 01.25 and 1.5 μl/ml and for Gram-negative between 1.0 and 1.75 μl/ml. The tested bacteria come from Staphylococcus, Enterococcus, Enterobacter and Acinetobacter genera were susceptible to essential oil obtained from Cinnamomum zeylanicum Ness in low concentrations, despite the fact that the bacteria characterized the high resistance to recommended antibiotics. No correlation was found between the antibiotic resistance of the bacterial strains and their sensitivity to essential oil.
Conclusions: The cinnamon bark oil due to the strong activity can be used as alternative antibacterial agents in cosmetics, toiletries and disinfectants applied in hospital environment.