CARACTERIZAÇÃO QUÍMICA, TOXICIDADE E AVALIAÇÃO DA ATIVIDADE ANTIBACTERIANA DO ÓLEO ESSENCIAL DO CRAVO DA ÍNDIA (Syzygium aromaticum)

Abstract

The vegetable specie Syzygium aromaticum, known as clove is a 12 to 15 meters high tree that belongs the Mirtaceae family. In Brazil, the plants are found in warm regions, especially at the lower southern region of the state of Bahia. Their floral bud contains an essential oil of high economical value in the international market, due to the high content of eugenol (its main compound) which is widely used in the chemical and pharmaceutical industries. In this work the extraction of essential oil from dried flower buds of cloves by the hydrodistillation method, using a Clevenger s system. Was observed that the maximum volume of oil is extracted in a time of 4 hours with a 3,54 % m/m yield. Besides the physical-chemical parameters as density, refraction rate, solubility, color and appearance, was possible- the techniques of gas chromatography and mass spectrometry identify with security the eugenol as majority constituent of the essential oil of Syzygium aromaticum. The method of normalization was possible to identify and quantify the components: eugenol (52.53 %), caryophyllene (37.25 %), humulene (4.11 %), eugenol acetate (4.05 %) and copaene (2.05 %). With the application of the essential oil of clove and eugenol in the standard bioassay of toxicity observed a high toxic potential against the larvae of Artemia salina. It was also still evaluated the essential oil s antibacterial activity of the essential oil and eugenol standard over the bacteria Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella ssp, isolated from food and water. The study microbiological showed that the essential oil of cloves presented a good antibacterial activity against the strains tested, being eugenol the main responsible for this efficiency.