Atividade antibacteriana do óleo essencial de Mentha piperita L. sobre Salmonella enteridis, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes e Staphylococcus aureus.

Abstract

The Mentha piperita L., commonly known aspeppermint is aplant native tothe Mediterranean, but is very abundant in Brazil. The peppermint has strong smell, very aromatic and special flavor, spicy, which leaves the mouth feeling ífesh pleasant. It’s essential oil rich in menthol has antibacterial, spasmolytic eliminating intestinal gas and possible feelings of malaise. As an essential oil widely used for its therapeutic action, in this work, we seek to evaluate their antimicrobial activity "in vitro" on four strains of pathogenic bactéria and, Salmonella enteritidis, Listeria monocytogenes, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, by agar diffúsion method and a microdilution for to determine the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) at concentrations of 10; 5; 2,5; 1,25; 0,6 and 0.3%. The results showed significant inhibitory effect for four strains of bactéria. So, we conclude that the essential oil of Mentha piperita L. has antibacterial potential of the strains tested.