Antibacterial Activity of Cuminum Cyminum L. Oil on Six Types of Bacteria

The Cuminum Cyminum (cumin) oil was extracted from cumin seeds by distillation process. The extracted cumin oil was used to assess its effectiveness as antibacterial that through testing on six types of bacteria; two of them were bacteria gram-negative (E. coli and S. typhi) and the remainders were bacteria gram-positive (Proteus Vulgaris, Klebsiella Pneumonae, Enterococcus Feacalis and Staphylococcus Aureus). Four concentrations (12.5%, 25%, 50% and 100%) of cumin oil were used for screening fulfillment by using the cup-plate agar diffusion method and gentamicin (10µg) as the positive control. According to different concentration the inhibition area, minimum inhibition zones diameters (MIZD) in mm and the relative percentage inhibition of the test with respect to positive control were calculated. The results showed that all tested concentrations of cumin oil showed antibacterial activity against gram positive and gram negative bacteria.