Fathy Hayam M, Ahmed Marwa N, Goda Hanan A, Moselhy Mohamed A
Microbiology Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, 12613, Egypt.
Sci Rep. 2025 Aug 27;15(1):31644. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-16485-5.
Antimicrobial resistance represents a significant global issue that requires the investigation of innovative approaches for infection management. In pursuit of alternative natural antimicrobials, nine plant essential oils were evaluated for their antibacterial properties against nine common bacterial pathogens. Among the tested essential oils, thyme essential oil demonstrated the highest antibacterial activity against all tested bacterial species, Thyme essential oil exhibited inhibition zones ranging from 17.3 to 51 mm with relative minimum inhibitory concentrations ranging from 99.2 to 450 µg/ml, implying the bactericidal effect. The ultrastructural changes in bacterial cells treated with thyme essential oil were visualized using transmission electron microscope. Thyme essential oil exhibited a potent inhibitory effect toward the biofilm formations for all the tested pathogenic strains. GC/MS analysis was used to determine the thyme essential oil composition. The major components of thyme essential oil were thymol (28.29%), o-cymene (18.31%), ç-terpinene (8.51%), eucalyptol (5%), linalool (2.86%), borneol (2.17%), á-myrcene (1.55%), à-pinene (1.52%) and camphene (1%). Molecular docking analysis demonstrated that the constituents present in the thyme essential oil had high binding affinity for ECF, FimH, LasR, PrfA and RhlA proteins, which were found to be associated with improved anti-biofilm efficacy. Furthermore, treatment with thyme essential oil led to the downregulation of essential genes associated with virulence and biofilm formation in the tested pathogens. These findings suggest that thyme essential oil has promising potential as an antibacterial and a biofilm inhibitory agent to combat bacterial infections in food and pharmaceutical industries.
抗菌耐药性是一个重大的全球性问题，需要研究创新的感染管理方法。为了寻找替代天然抗菌剂，对九种植物精油针对九种常见细菌病原体的抗菌性能进行了评估。在所测试的精油中，百里香精油对所有测试细菌种类表现出最高的抗菌活性，其抑菌圈范围为17.3至51毫米，相对最低抑菌浓度范围为99.2至450微克/毫升，表明具有杀菌作用。使用透射电子显微镜观察了用百里香精油处理的细菌细胞的超微结构变化。百里香精油对所有测试的致病菌株的生物膜形成均表现出强效抑制作用。采用气相色谱/质谱分析来确定百里香精油的成分。百里香精油的主要成分是百里香酚（28.29%）、邻伞花烃（18.31%）、γ-萜品烯（8.51%）、桉叶油素（5%）、芳樟醇（2.86%）、冰片（2.17%）、α-月桂烯（1.55%）、α-蒎烯（1.52%）和莰烯（1%）。分子对接分析表明，百里香精油中的成分对ECF、FimH、LasR、PrfA和RhlA蛋白具有高结合亲和力，这些蛋白被发现与提高抗生物膜功效有关。此外，用百里香精油处理导致测试病原体中与毒力和生物膜形成相关的必需基因下调。这些发现表明，百里香精油作为一种抗菌和生物膜抑制剂有潜力在食品和制药行业对抗细菌感染。
