ABSTRACT
Objective To evaluate the susceptibility of Mycobacterium aurum and Mycobacterium smegmatis in vitro to the essential oils obtained from two medicinal plants: Thymus satureioides (T. satureioides) and Mentha pulegium (M. pulegium), and to study their chemical composition. Methods The aerial parts of T. satureioides and M. pulegium (leaves and stems) were hydro-distillated using a Clevenger-type apparatus and essential oils were analyzed and identified by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Antimycobacterial screening of essential oils was performed on the basis of the inhibition zone diameter by disc diffusion method against two mycobacterial strains whereas the minimal inhibitory concentration and minimal bactericidal concentration were determined by using the micro-dilution method. Results Chemical analysis of their aerial part's essential oils gave as major compounds, borneol (34.26%), carvacrol (31.21%) and thymol (3.71%) for T. satureioides and R(+)-pulegone (75.48%), carvone (6.66%) and dihydrocarvone (4.64%) for M. pulegium. Thereafter their antimycobacterial effect evaluation, using the micro-dilution method, indicated that minimal inhibitory concentration values of T. satureioides essential oil ranged from 0.062% to 0.015% (v/v) and from 0.125% to 0.031% (v/v) for M. pulegium respectively against Mycobacterium aurum and Mycobacterium smegmatis. Conclusions It is clearly evident from the results obtained that the Moroccan medicinal plants have great potential to be used as anti-tuberculosis agents. These findings may help scientists to undertake several research projects to discover useful natural product as new anti-tuberculosis drug.