In-Vitro antimicrobial evaluation of extracts, oil and fractionated geraniol of cymbopogan citratus-an aromatic grass

The emergence of multiple antibiotic resistant bacteria has become a major challenge in the treatment of infectious diseases. The use of plant extracts and phytochemicals both with known and unknown antimicrobial properties can be of great significance in therapeutic treatments. In the present study the extracts and oil of Cymbopogan citratus, an aromatic perennial grass is evaluated for its antimicrobial activity. The leaves were collected, and extracted with the solvents hexane, methanol and ethanol in soxhlet extractor. The aromatic oil was also extracted by hydro distillation and the major component of the oil i.e., geraniol was separated by using silica column with hexane. The thirteenth fraction of the column showed the presence of pure geraniol. The extracts, oil and geraniol collected were then screened for its antimicrobial activity against various gram positive, gram negative and fungi by disc diffusion technique. The phytochemical constituents were identified using standard phytochemical tests showed the presence of phenols and absence of alkaloids and flavonoids. GC-MS and FTIR analysis were also performed for the hydro-distilled oil. The crude extracts, extracted oil and isolated geraniol from C.citratus was found to have significant broad spectrum antimicrobial activity against all the tested microbes.