HERBAL DRUG AS NOVEL ANTIBIOTICS.

This study is extended in many years, from 2010 in which is investigated the herbal drug biological activity. The evolution of antibiotic-resistant bacteria has been developed very rapidly lately over the world. In this point, there is an urgent need to develop alternative strategies to address this issue. Herbal drugs are a very promising group since they are used since ancients time for their antimicrobial, antifungal and antinflammatory properties. The essential oils obtained from medicinal and aromatic plants by Albanian origin, such as Satureja montana, Thymus vulgaris, Origanum vulgare, Myrtus communis, Rosmarinus officinalis, Thymus capitatus and Salvia officinalis are studied for antibacterial and antifungal properties in this study. Essential oils are obtained by hydrodistillation in a Clevenger type apparatus and the chemical composition of isolated essential oils is determined by gas GC/MS and GC/FID methods. Complexes of β-cyclodextrine and essential oils are prepared by cold co-precipitation method with the four ratios oil: β-cyclodextrine as follows 5:95, 10:90, 15:85 and 20:80 (w/w) in order to determine the effect of the ratio on the inclusion efficiency of β-cyclodextrin for encapsulating oil. On the other hand, current topical applications of these volatile compounds turn out to be complicated because of their problems of stability, evaporation and controlled release, which are major problems for their therapeutic uses; Therefore, is studied their microencapsulation in polymers such as β-cyclodextrine which could be the solution to their chemical and physical problems. The essential oils were tested for antimicrobial and antifungal activity before and after microencapsulation. The antimicrobial test is done by the disc diffusion method using suspension of P. vulgaris, E. coli, S. aureus, C. albicans and dermatophytes such as M. gypseum, M. canis, A. cajetani, T. violaceum, T. mentagrophytes, E. floccosum, T. rubrum, T. tonsurans, B. cinerea and P. oryzae. Positive controls of antibiotics and antifungals were used for comparison. Essential oils showed high inhibition zones against selected bacterias, and encapsulated ones were found to be more efficient. In conclusion these essential oils can be applied in many formulations due to their low risk of skin sensitizing and high antibacterial and antifungal activity they demonstrated before and after encapsulation. Further investigation is going on with systemic formulation with complexed essential oils which can be a very useful solution in many patient. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]