<i>In silico</i> study and bioprospection of the antibacterial and antioxidant effect of the essential oils of <i>Cymbopogon citratus</i> and <i>Zingiber Officinale</i> against bacteria associated with otitis media in children

Abstract

This present study was conducted to investigate the efficacy of the essential oils (EO) of Cymbopogon citratus (DC.) Stapf. (Lemon grass) and Zingiber officinale Roscoe (ginger) against bacteria associated with otitis media (OM) in children. Ear swab samples were collected from 12 children diagnosed with OM between the ages of 0 – 5 years. Essential oils were extracted from the plants using the hydro-distillation method. The antibacterial activity of the essential oils was determined using the agar well diffusion method against isolated bacteria including Proteus mirabilis, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus vulgaris, Moraxella catarrhalis, Klebsiella pneumoniae and Staphylococccus epidermidis. The antibiotic susceptibility patterns of the bacteria isolated was determined using 10 standard antibiotics as control. Greater zones of inhibition were observed in essential oil of Lemon grass as compared to Ginger. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) and Minimum Bactericidal concentrations (MBC) were carried out for each essential oil where higher values (12.5 -100%v/v) were recorded for ginger essential oil than lemon grass (0.78 – 1.56%v/v). Phytochemical analysis of the EOs of ginger and lemon grass carried out using GC-MS showed the presence of zingiberene (26.85%) and generaldehyde (21.13%) respectively as the most abundant phytocompounds. In silico study was carried out through the molecular docking method using the AutoDock version 2.1 by taking two proteins- osmoporin and mevalonate synthetase as targets and different phytocompounds from the essential oils as ligands. Molecular docking highlighted the potential of several phytocompounds in the essential oils to inhibit protein targets required by bacteria for survival.