Antibacterial activity of an effective spice essential oil formulated in foot deodorant gel against bacillus subtilis

Abstract

Skin bacterial flora, namely Staphylococcus epidennidis, are able to metabolise sweat that hence leads to foot odor. Moreover, Bacillus subtilis was found in the plantar skin of subjects possessing strong foot odor. The synthetic antibacterial agent generally used in various foot deodorant formulations is triclosan which tends to cause bacterial tolerance. To avoid that shortcoming, researchers in this study developed a natural foot deodorant gel from essential oils. Previous research of our group revealed that cinnamon oil showed a higher antibacterial activity against S. epidermidis than the essential oils obtained from kaffir lime, lemongrass, sweet basil, galanga and ginger. In the present study, the susceptibility of B. subtilis to the mentioned essential oils was determined and the results showed that cinnamon oil possessed the highest activity. Foot deodorant gel containing cinnamon oil was formulated and studied for its biological stability for 90 days at accelerated conditions. The lethal effect of the cinnamon oil gel exposed to B. subtilis for 1 h, was studied at day 0, 15, 30, 60 and 90. It was found that on all sampling days, cinnamon oil gel could decrease by at least 90% the initial bacterial population after 1 h of contact time. In conclusion, cinnamon oil foot deodorant gel demonstrated a good ability to decrease the bacteria involved in strong foot odor. The cinnamon oil foot deodorant gel might be an alternative cosmetic for people who have strong foot odor. © 2012 Asian Network for Scientific Information.