Antibacterial and Antifungal Activity of Rosa damascena MILL. Essential Oil, Different Extracts of Rose Petals

Rosa damascena petals were extracted by water, hexane and ethanol. The latter was further fractionated with chloroform, ethyl acetate and butanol. Rose oil and different petal extracts were evaluated against three fungi and eleven Gram-positive, Gram-negative and acid-fast bacteria. Rose oil and all extracts exerted broad spectrum antimicrobial activities against the tested organisms. The descending order of antifungal activity of rose oil and different extracts was, Penicillium notatum, Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans. Ethyl acetate extracted fraction was relatively more active against the tested bacteria than the other tested extracts. Gram-positive bacteria, Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis and Streptococcus pyogenes were more sensitive than Gram-negative bacteria and had MICs and MBCs in the range of 0.125 to 2 mg/ml and 0.5 to 4 mg/ml respectively. Acinetobacter baumannii, which is intrinsically resistant to most antibiotics, was relatively more sensitive than other Gram-negative bacteria. On the contrary, Klebsiella pneumoniae was the least sensitive Gram-negative bacterium. The MICs of Gram-positive bacteria to different extracts were significantly (p 0.05) less than those of K. pneumoniae. The acid-fast bacterium, Mycobacterium phlei, was intermediate in its sensitivity to the extracted fractions compared to Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. The antibacterial activity of aqueous extracts of petals suggests a possible utilization of rose petal boiling water after rose oil distillation. Further studies are required to separate and identify the active antimicrobial phytoconstituents of petals to utilize them pharmaceutically.