Antibiofilm Activity of Essential Oil from Etlingera elatior Inflorescence against Acinetobacter baumanii

Abstract

Acinetobacter baumanii, also known as ‘Iraqibacter’ ranked among the top most pathogens causinghospital acquired infections. Acinetobacter baumanii is resistant to most of the antibiotics which isattributed to its ability to form biofilms. The hike in antimicrobial resistance poses and extra ordinarythreat to human life and therefore developing new antimicrobial drugs become a compelling situation forscientific community. Plants are the rich sources of bioactive compounds. Mankind depended on plantsto cure infections ever since life began. Essential oils secreted by the plants have been used since ancienttimes in many traditional therapies. Essential oils are volatile odoriferous oil extracted from deferent plantparts. In this study, the essential oil from inflorescence of Etlingera elatior (Torch ginger) is used to studyits antibacterial and antibiofilm effects on Acinetobacter baumanii. Essential oil was extracted from theinflorescence using the Clevenger apparatus and stored at 40C. The oil was found to be a promisingantibacterial and antibiofilm agent against the selected bacteria. The components of essential oil wereidentified using GC-MS analysis. Further studies are required to develop drug molecule from the selectedplant essential oil.