Atividade do óleo essencial de Eucalyptus Globulus no controle de bactérias da cavidade oral

Eucalyptus globulus oil has several pharmacological properties. Among them, its antiseptic, expectorant, antifungal and antimicrobial effects stand out. The present work had the general objective of evaluating the activity of Eucalyptus globulus oil in the control of bacteria of the oral cavity and specific objectives to compare the effect of Eucalyptus globulus oil with chlorhexidine effect and to determine in which bacterial strains the oil of Eucalyptus globulus was more effective. The antimicrobial activity was tested in bacteria of the group Escherichia coli (E. coli), Enterococcus faecalis (E. faecalis) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) by the agar diffusion method with the well technique. The wells were filled with solutions of 0.12% chlorhexidine and Eucalyptus globulus oil in concentrations of 100%, 50%, 25%, 10%, 1% and 0.1% in order to compare the antimicrobial effect by inhibition growth. The tests were performed in triplicate and the statistical analysis was performed using Student's T-test. The data were organized into tables for the demonstration of the results obtained. Values of p <0.05 were considered significant. It was observed that Eucalyptus globulus oil at concentrations of 100%, 50%, 25% and 10% in general in all bacteria presented similar effectiveness to that of chlorhexidine. It is possible to conclude that Eucalyptus globulus oil in its varied concentrations, presented antimicrobial effects, its effectiveness was as good as that of chlorhexidine and in all bacterial strains studied, this oil presented antimicrobial action.