INTERACTIONS BETWEEN CARDAMOM
ESSENTIAL OIL AND CONVENTIONAL
ANTIBIOTICS AGAINST STAPHYLOCOCCUS
AUREUS CLINICAL ISOLATES
ADINA CATINCA GRĂDINARU1, ANA CLARA APROTOSOAIE1*,
ADRIANA TRIFAN1, ADRIAN ȘPAC1, MIHAI BREBU2, ANCA
MIRON1
1Faculty of Farmacy, Grigore T.Popa University of Medicine and
Pharmacy Iasi, 16 Universitatii Street, Romania, Iași, 700115
2Physical Chemistry of Polymers Laboratory, “Petru Poni” Institute of
Macromolecular Chemistry, Grigore Ghica Voda Alley 41A, Romania,
Iași, 70048
*corresponding author: anaclara70@yahoo.com
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Abstract:

The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of cardamom essential oil and
antibiotics combinations against methicillin-resistant clinical isolates and ATCC 25923
reference strain of Staphylococcus aureus. The interaction of the essential oil with the
antibiotics was assessed by the checkerboard method. The chemical composition of
essential oil was analysed by gas chromatography with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) and
gas chromatography with flame ionization detection (GC-FID) and α-terpinyl acetate
(39.59%) and 1,8-cineole (31.27%) were identified as main compounds. Combinations of
cardamom essential oil with amoxicillin or ciprofloxacin exerted mainly additive and
indifferent effects on methicillin-resistant clinical isolates while combinations of 1,8-cineol
with antibiotics generated antagonistic and indifferent effects. Additive effects on
Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923 were generated by the following combinations:
cardamom essential oil – ciprofloxacin, 1,8-cineol – amoxicillin and 1,8-cineol –
ciprofloxacin. The antagonistic interactions noted here, particularly for 1,8-cineol, suggest
that its concomitant administration with amoxicillin or ciprofloxacin, depending on the
combination ratios, can diminish the antibacterial activity of these antibiotics in infections
with Staphyloccocus aureus isolates.

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