Specific gravity and antibacterial assays of some synthetic industrial essential oils

Samples of synthetic industrial essential oil (SIEO) were assayed to provide basis for establishing correlation and validation of claims of its density, disinfectant and germicidal properties with its natural counterparts. Specific gravity (SG) and antibacterial assays were carried out on twenty typical SIEO samples that are commonly used in Northern Nigeria. The results show that mean SG was 0.970 with 5% coefficient of variance (CV) between samples and was not statistically significant following Kolmogorov-Smirnov error protection at 95% confidence limit. Antimicrobial activity test results consisting of bioautography and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) tests present variable effects of the SIEO S. aureus and E. coli but are not completely dependent on each other. Generally, the results of SG determinations for SIEO correspond greatly with SG values of most natural essential oils extracts and that up 70% SIEO showed antibacterial activity. The SIEO studied like their naturalcounterpart may contain certain antibacterial agents with similar effects to standard Chloramphenicol used in this work. However, further studies are required to justify the safety of the application of SIEO as antimicrobial agents.