Antibacterial activity of selected essential oils against pathogenic bacteria causing human pyospermia

Urogenital infections can impact the male reproductive system in various ways. The increasing resistance of microorganisms to conventional chemicals and drugs has prompted scientists to search for novel sources. In this study, among 186 human semen samples, 65 (34.94%) cultures were found to be positive for bacterial growth. All bacterial isolates were screened for antibiotic susceptibility tests. Regarding the antibiogram, all bacterial isolates showed high resistance to widely used antibiotics. In addition, the antimicrobial activity of three essential oils (cinnamon, lavender, and rosemary) showed strong inhibitory activity against Enterococcus faecalis (10.0 to 21.3 mm), Staphylococcus haemolyticus (9.7 to 34.3 mm), Escherichia coli (9.0 to 22.7 mm), Micrococcus lylae(17.0 to 39.7 mm), and Serratia marcescens (9.3 to 17.3 mm).As a good result, the MIC values of essential oils ranged from15.6 to 125μL/mL. Moreover, GC-MS analysis of the three essential oils revealed the presence of Linalool (49.45%), cinnamaldehyde, (E) (43.55%) and limonene (34.99%) as the predominant bioactive compounds in lavender, cinnamon and rosemary essential oils respectively. Most detected bioactive compounds demonstrate antimicrobial action by increasing cell permeability, causing cell leakage and reduced nucleoplasm. These findings confirm the antibacterial potential of selected three essential oils present in the current work are a good source of antimicrobial candidates that are effective against urogenital pathogenic bacterial infection.