RESUMO
Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the essential oil composition as well as antibacterial activities of essential oil and leaves extracts of Lantana camara against five bacterial strains. Methods: Essential oil was obtained by hydro-distillation from the leaves and analyzed by GC and GC-MS. The antibacterial activities of essential oil and the leaves extracts were tested by using disk diffusion method against five bacterial strains. Results: Thirty seven compounds were identified representing 98.11% of the total oil, of which trans-caryophyllene (13.95%), bicyclogermacrene (9.77%), α-curcumene (8.57%), sabinene (8.28%), (E)-citral (6.90%), 1,8 cineole (5.06%), α-pinene (4.03%), γ-terpinene (3.83%) and germacrene D (3.13%) were detected as major components. In respect to the antibacterial activities, essential oil showed the high degree of sensitivity against Micrococcus luteus, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus except Pseudomonas aeruginosa while extracts of leaves obtained through petroleum ether, benzene, methanol and water exhibited good to moderate antimicrobial activity against all tested bacterial strains. Conclusions: The present study suggested that M. luteus showed best zone of inhibition for the essential oil as well as aqueous extract among all the tested bacterial strains. The most active extract can be subjected to isolation of the therapeutic antimicrobials to carry out further pharmacological evaluation.