EXTRACTION, CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION AND ANTIMICROBIAL POTENCY OF ESSENTIAL OIL OF TAHITI LEMON (Citrus latifolia Tanaka)

The increase in bacterial resistance to antibiotics induce the emergence of more virulent strains with ability to cross natural barriers of defense of the organism and of becoming pathogenic even when present in low numbers. Therefore the use of natural compounds such as essential oils which have a strong bactericidal property against food pathogens has been widely explored. In this way the focus study aimed to extract chemically characterize and evaluate the antimicrobial potential of essential oil from Citrus latifolia Tanaka (tahiti lemon) against the strains of Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus. For extraction of essential oil we used the hydrodistillation technique chemical characterisation by Gas Chromatography coupled to Mass Spectrometry (GC/MS) and the antimicrobial potential was evaluated by the Disk Diffusion Method (DDM). It was observed for this oil yield (1,64%) the CG-MS quantified the limonene dioxide (25,93%) as major component and all bacteria were sensitive front of the oil. Therefore it has the potential of antimicrobial essential oil from Citrus latifolia Tanaka (Tahiti lemon) pointing the same as an ally in applications which depend on the inhibition of microorganisms tested in this study.