The in vitro antimicrobial activity of thyme oil and
chitosan microparticles against aforementioned microorganisms,
and their potential activities were assessed
qualitatively and quantitatively by the presence or absence
of inhibition zones, and the zone diameters were
expressed in mm. According to the results represented
in Table 1 and Fig. 3, thyme essential oil, as well as
chitosan microparticles containing this oil, showed significant
antibacterial and antifungal activity against all
tested indicator strains. With increasing the initial concentration
of essential oil from 0.3 to 1.5%, the inhibition
zones increased from 4 to 6 mm against S. aureus.
The same trend was observed for the inhibition zones
against tested microorganisms: E. faecalis, C. albicans
and E. coli (Table 1). Hence regardless of the tested
bacteria and fungi the increase of the concentration of
encapsulated essential oil in chitosan microparticles led
to an increase of the inhibition zones