Screening the Antibacterial Activity of Chamomile and Basil Essential Oils and Extracts

• 1-Nahla Jawhar Kareem 2-Tavga Mageed Aziz 3-Bilal Ibrahim Mohammed

  Author

The experiment was conducted at the Khabat Technical Institute (Erbil Polytechnic University, Kurdistan, Iraq) during spring of 2026. The ever-increasing emergence of bacterial pathogens resistant to antibiotics has motivated the quest for new antimicrobial agents from medicinal plants. To assess the antibacterial activity of aqueous and alcoholic extracts, and essential oils obtained from chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) and basil (Ocimum basilicum L.), in relation to the antimicrobial susceptibility resistance, we performed a study on three pathogenic Gram-positive bacteria: Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Streptococcus pyogenes. Determine the antibacterial activity of the plant preparations in comparison with two traditional antibiotics Vancomycin and Cefotaxime. Different treatments (0.25, 0.5, and 1 ml) of aqueous extracts and essential oils, and (0.25, 0.5, and 1 g) of alcoholic extracts, with three replications were prepared and tested using the agar well diffusion method. The diameter of the inhibition zones surrounding each treatment was measured in order to evaluate the antibacterial efficacy. Significant variations in plant species, extraction techniques, treatments, and bacterial strains were shown by the results. Inhibition zones generally grew as extract and essential oil treatments rose. Compared to basil, chamomile showed more potent antibacterial activity, especially in its alcoholic extract. When tested against S. epidermidis, S. aureus, and S. pyogenes, the alcoholic chamomile extract at 1 ml produced inhibition zones of 6.067, 6.067, and 5.867 cm, respectively, which were comparable to the efficacy of the antibiotics. Basil essential oil showed the highest antibacterial activity among basil preparations, producing inhibition zones of 4.000, 2.567, and 3.533 cm against the respective bacterial species at the highest concentration tested. The aqueous extracts of both plants exhibited the lowest antibacterial activity compared with alcoholic extracts and essential oils.

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