Antimicrobial Activity of Essential Oil from Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. Pollen

The Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. pollen essential oil was extracted by using vapor distillation. Antimicrobial activity of Nelumbo nucifera Gaertn. pollen essential oil has been investigated using agar diffusion susceptibility test and broth macro-dilution. The essential oil were tested against both gram positive (S. aureus ATCC 25923, S. epidermidis ATCC l2228,M. luteus ATCC 9341, B. subtillis ATCC 6633 and L. plantarum ATCC 14917) and gram negative (E. coli ATCC25922, S. typhimurium ATCC 14028, K. pneumaniae ATCC 10031, P. vulgaris ATCC 13315, Ps. aeruginasa ATCC 9721) bacteria using agar diffusion susceptibility test. Significant zone of inhibition were observed for S. typhimurium ATCC14028 and E. coli ATCC25922). The MICs and MBCs are 10-40 and 20-80 ml L -1, respectively. Nelumba mucifera pollen essential oil show inhibitory effect on growth of food born pathogen bacteria in low concentration which indicated the possibility of used as food preservation additive.