The Effect of Essential Oils on Staphylococcus aureus

Abstract

Diseases caused by Staphylococcus aureus are widespread through the world in spite of developing technology. S. aureus is an important pathogen causing food intoxications besides hospital infections by its antibiotic resistant strains. Nowadays, there has been worldwide increasing concern on usage of natural products to control microorganisms. One of these natural products is essential oils. They are produced from plants especially from spices and composed of many components and volatiles. This review summarizes informative literature on essential oils and their mode of antimicrobial action. In addition, current knowledge on in vitro researches on antibacterial activity of essential oils and food applications to control S. aureus has been discussed.