Phytochemical Screening of the Essential Oil of Syzygium aromaticum and Antibacterial Activity against Nosocomial Infections in Neonatal Intensive Care

Nosocomial infection in pediatric intensive care, which is dominated by bacterial strains, represents a real public health problem. Indeed, most pathogens showed a low resistance to antibiotics which induced diseases. This is the reason why new alternatives were established in order to overcome the incidence of nosocomial infections. Hence, secondary metabolites of plants are known as an efficient source of new natural products especially to tackle these kinds of infections. Throughout this study, a phytochemical screening of clove (Syzygium aromaticum) essential oil was carried out by using chromatography-flame ionization detector and gas chromatography-mass spectrometer analysis. Thus, the antibacterial activity of the extracted oil was evaluated against four bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus and Proteus mirabilis) that cause nosocomial infections in neonatal intensive care by using disc diffusion method. Indeed, the analysis showed that two major compounds known as Eugenol (87.03%) and Eugenol Acetate (11.25%) are present in Syzygium aromaticum essential oil. Moreover, a strong antibacterial activity of the extracted oil was identified and could be exploited as a natural antibacterial drugs bacterial strains resistance.