Introduction:

Medicinal plants have proved to have antibacterial properties for the control of periodontitis.

Objective:

Determine the antibacterial activity against Porphyromonas gingivalis ATCC 33277 of an experimental gel composed of essential Eucalyptus globulus Labill oil.

Methods:

An in vitro experimental study was conducted. The software EPi InfoTM was used to estimate the repetitions. The essential oil was obtained by steam entrainment, and its chemical composition was determined by gas chromatography / mass spectrometry. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) were also evaluated. An agar diffusion test was performed to measure the inhibition haloes of the 4.46% experimental gel against P. gingivalis. Comparison with 0.12% chlorhexidine was evaluated with the Mann-Whitney U test. A 5% significance level was adopted.

Results:

A total 11 constituents were identified in the essential oil. The main chemical components were 3-Heptadecene, (Z)- (36.13%), 1-Tridecene (14.7%) and 1,8-cineole (9.72%). MIC of the essential oil was 36.195 mg/ml, whereas MBC was 39.114 mg/ml. The inhibition haloes of the experimental P. gingivalis gel were 25.533 mm ± 0.960 mm. Statistically significant differences were observed versus 0.12% chlorhexidine (23.282 ± 0.345) (p < 0.05).

Conclusions:

The 4.46% experimental gel composed of Eucalyptus globulus Labill essential oil displayed considerable antibacterial activity against Porphyromonas gingivalis ATCC 33277.

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