In vitro activity of essential oil of Myrtus communis L. against Helicobacter pylori

We recently investigated the antimicrobial properties of the essential oil of Myrtus communis L. against clinical isolates of Helicobacter pylori collected in the Institute of Microbiology of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart in Rome, Italy. Samples of M. communis were collected during July 2005 (when the plants are in flower) near Olbia in northeastern Sardinia, and the essential oil was extracted by hydrodistillation and analysed by GC/MS.The antibacterial activity of the oil was assessed by the disk diffusion method on 2-day-old cultures of H. pylori. Minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) for amoxicillin, clarithromycin, metronidazole, tetracycline and levofloxacin were also determined for each isolate with the Epsilometer test (E-test, AB Biodisk, Solna, Sweden).