Composition and biological activity of the essential oil from Thapsia minor, a new source of geranyl acetate

The essential oils from aerial parts of Thapsia minor Hoffmanns. & Link (Apiaceae), obtained by hydrodistillation, were analyzed by gas-chromatography and gas-chromatography-mass spectrometry. Oxygenated monoterpenes represented the main fraction with geranyl acetate (82.3-83.0%) as the major constituent, making this plant a good source of this compound.Biological activity of the essential oil was evaluated against several fungal strains. The highest activity was found against dermatophyte strains, Crytococcus neoformans and Candida guillermondii with minimal inhibitory concentrations values from 0.32 μl/ml to 1.25 μl/ml. The antifungal activity could be associated with the significant contribution of the oxygenated monoterpene geranyl acetate.Furthermore, this essential oil demonstrated to have potent anti-inflammatory in vitro activity, at concentrations that did not affect macrophages and keratinocytes viability, being the anti-inflammatory properties of the oil mainly due to geranyl acetate.These favorable results emphasize the antifungal and anti-inflammatory abilities of the molecule geranyl acetate and further support the exploitation of T. minor oil for pharmaceutical industry, in order to find new phytopharmaceuticals.     

Antimicrobial resistance pattern of Salmonella serotypes isolated from food items and personnel in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Antimicrobial susceptibility test of 98 isolates of Salmonella was assayed from September 2003 to February 2004 using the guidelines of the National Committee for Clinical Laboratory Standards (NCCLS).The result revealed that 32.7% of Salmonella isolates were resistant to one or more of the 24 antimicrobials tested. Generally resistance for 13 different antimicrobial drugs was recognized. The most common resistance was to streptomycin (24/32, 75%), ampicillin (19/32, 59.4%), tetracycline (15/32, 46.9%), spectinomycin (13/32, 40.6%) and sulfisoxazole (13/32, 40.6%). All the three Salmonella Kentucky isolates showed resistance to at least 8 antimicrobials. Out of the 12 Salmonella Braenderup isolates, 10 (83.3%) showed multidrug resistance to ampicillin, spectinomycin, streptomycin, sulfisoxazole, sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and trimethoprim. Among the 8 S. Hadar isolates 7 (86.5%) showed antimicrobial resistance. All the 6 S. Dublin isolates were resistant to carbadox (100%). All the 6 S. Haifa isolates were resistant for at least ampicillin, streptomycin and tetracycline. Up to ten different antimicrobial resistances pattern was observed. Multiple antimicrobial drug resistance was observed in 23 Salmonella isolates (23.5%). The level of antimicrobial resistance was significantly higher for isolates from chicken carcass (18/29, 62.1%) and pork isolates (5/22, 22.7%) (p = 0.003). The findings of the present study ascertain that significant proportion Salmonella isolates have developed resistance for routinely prescribed antimicrobial drugs and poses considerable health hazards to the consumers unless prudent control measures are instituted.