3.1. Composition of C. grewioides essential oil
The evaluation of the chemical composition of the essential oil extracted from the aerial parts of
C. grewioides revealed the presence of 2.92 % of monoterpenoid compounds, 5.45 % of oxygenated monoterpenes, 4.40 % of sesquiterpenes, 0.42 % of oxygenated sesquiterpenes, 69.73 % of phenylpropanoids and 10.99 % of ethers. The major compound identified in the chemical analysis was estragole with 50.34 %, followed by the compounds methyl eugenol with 19.39 % and anisole with 10.99 %. In total, 18 compounds were identified by chromatography analysis (
Figure 1 and
Figure 2), whose percentages are described in
Table 1.
In the study by Santos
et al. [
16] that evaluated the chemical composition of essential oils from three chemotypes of
C. grewioides extracted from branches, in the first chemotype the major component was (
E)-anethole with 70.5 %. In the second chemotype, eugenol with 84.2 %. Finally, in the third chemotype, (
Z)-methyl with 53.4 % was presented. In another study carried out by Silva
et al. [
17], the composition of the essential oil of
C. grewioides extracted from branches revealed (
E)-anethole as the major component with 47.8 %. Comparing these studies with the components identified in this research, the absence of the compound (
E)-anethole in the chromatographic analyses is demonstrated, which can be explained by environmental factors such as collection site, collection period, part of the plant used, vegetative state of the plant, genetic factors, among others [18, 19].
Studies evaluating the chemical composition of the essential oil extracted from the leaves of
C. grewioides, reported by Costa
et al. [
20] and Siqueira
et al. [
21], reveal the presence of estragole with 76.8 % and 45.95 % respectively as the major components present in its oil. As in the studies by Leite
et al. [
22] and Andrade
et al. [
8], its percentage present in the essential oil is 78 % and 84.7 %, whose estragole compound and its percentages are close to those found in this study.
The variation in the chemical composition of essential oils is likely a result of the plant's adaptive mechanisms, which utilize secondary metabolites to defend against predators and to adapt to variations in both biotic and abiotic environmental conditions [
23].
3.2. Antibacterial activity
The antibacterial activity of
C. grewioides essential oil tested on standard strains demonstrated significant results against the
K. pneumoniae (ICU) strain with an MIC value of 512 µg/mL. In multidrug-resistant strains, the oil presented better results on the
K. pneumoniae (KPC) and
K. pneumoniae (BLSE) strains, with MIC values of 512 and 256 µg/mL, respectively. The other MIC values of the strains used in this study are described in
Table 2.
In the strains tested, there was no inhibition of bacterial growth even at a concentration of 1024 µg/mL of OECG, this was due to the fact that the strains tested present biochemical mechanisms related to bacterial resistance, which implies a high degree of pathogenicity, since the strains tested in this study are involved in various infections in hospitalized patients, mainly due to urinary tract infections, as is the case with strains of
E. coli and
K. pneumoniae [
24].
Studies such as those by Rodrigues and collaborators [
25], which demonstrate the antibacterial potential of
C. grewioides essential oil against standard strains of
Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 15442 and
S. aureus ATCC 12692, obtaining minimum inhibitory dose (MID) results of 1 and 0.5 mg/L of air in
S. aureus. These findings corroborate the results obtained in this research, suggesting that compounds present in the essential oil, such as estragole and anethole, which are commonly reported in chemical studies, are directly related to the antibacterial effects observed in the tests.
3.3. Modulating activity
The beta-lactam antibiotics used in the study were amoxicillin and penicillin, which have a mechanism of action associated with the inhibition of bacterial cell wall synthesis, leading to destabilization of the cell wall's macrostructure and leakage of intracellular fluid due to membrane lysis. The aminoglycoside antibiotics were amikacin and gentamicin, which act by inhibiting the protein synthesis mechanism specifically in the 30S subunit of bacterial ribosomes [
26].
From the results obtained in the modulation tests, OECG enhanced the effects of amoxicillin on strains of
S. aureus 10,
K. pneumoniae (ICU) and
S. aureus ATCC 29213, with their respective MIC Reduction Factors (FRC) of 85 %, 84.16 % and 97.65 %. As for penicillin, it presented results on strains of
S. aureus 10 and
S. aureus ATCC 29213, with its most potent effects on K. pneumoniae (KPC) with a FRC of 99.95 %, E. coli 06 with 99.80 % and
K. pneumoniae (ICU) with 98.02 %. The remaining results are detailed in
Table 3.
When associated with gentamicin, OECG demonstrated promising results in both standard and multidrug-resistant strains, except for K. pneumoniae (KPC), which presented negative FRC, indicating an antagonistic effect. Of these results, the standard strains obtained FRC of 99.85 % in E. coli ATCC 25922, 99.80 % in S. aureus ATCC 29213 and 99.75 % in K. pneumoniae (ICU). As for amikacin, OECG was more effective against S. aureus ATCC 29213 with FRC of 99.88 %.
In the graph shown in
Figure 3, the modulating effect of OECG associated with the antibiotic amoxicillin against the strains used in this study, a synergistic effect was observed in the multiresistant strain
S. aureus 10, and in all standard strains tested. In the other strains tested, an antagonistic effect was observed in
S. aureus 10,
E. coli 06,
K. pneumoniae (BLSE),
K. pneumoniae (KPC).
OECG also showed synergistic effects in association with penicillin.
Figure 4 demonstrates the synergistic effects in all strains tested, with the exception of
K. pneumoniae (BLSE) and
E. coli ATCC 29213, which showed equivalence of means. One of the main mechanisms of bacterial resistance to beta-lactam antibiotics is the production of the beta-lactamase enzyme that hydrolyzes the beta-lactam ring of these antibiotics, inhibiting their action [
27]. The lack of effects of OECG associated with penicillin against
K. pneumoniae (BLSE) may be related to its resistance mechanism of the type of producer of the beta-lactamase enzyme that acts to inhibit the action of these drugs [
28].
Carbapinemase-producing bacteria exhibit a broad resistance mechanism against several beta-lactam antibiotics, acting in the hydrolysis of drugs such as penicillins, cephalosporins, monobactams and carbapenems [29, 30]. In this study, OECG potentiated the effect of penicillin, giving evidence that it may be involved in increasing membrane permeability, in which the entry of the drug into the cell is facilitated, in addition to acting at the genetic level, altering its resistance mechanism, since the drug is able to enter the cell, overcoming enzymatic barriers and inhibiting peptidoglycan synthesis, leading to rupture and extravasation of intracellular content [
31].
Amoxicillin, which also acts to inhibit cell wall synthesis, showed synergism in standard strains and multiresistant S. aureus 10. The mechanism is similar to that of penicillin. Furthermore, more effective inhibition by the drug was expected in standard strains, since these do not have as many resistance mechanisms as multiresistant strains.
In corroboration with these data, Medeiros
et al. [
32] evaluated the effects of
C. grewioides essential oil on the modulation of the antibiotics norfloxacin and tetracycline against
Staphylococcus aureus (SA-1199B) with efflux pump resistance mechanism, and demonstrated that in the absence of the oil, the antibiotic presents an inhibitory concentration of 64 µg/mL for norfloxacin and 32 µg/mL for tetracycline. In the presence of the oil, these values dropped to 16 µg/mL for norfloxacin and 0.5 µg/mL for tetracycline, enhancing the effect of the antibiotic even in the presence of the overexpressed gene for efflux pump.
The effect of OECG against aminoglycoside antibiotics showed that amikacin (
Figure 5) presented synergistic effects in all strains tested except
K. pneumoniae (BLSE), which presented an antagonistic effect, and
K. pneumoniae (KPC), which demonstrated equivalence to the control. As for gentamicin (
Figure 6), synergistic effects were observed in all strains tested, except for
K. pneumoniae (KPC), which exhibited an antagonistic effect.
Protein synthesis inhibitors that act on bacterial ribosomes in the 30S and 50S subunits are mainly classified as aminoglycosides, tetracyclines, and aphenicols, among others. These antibacterial drugs have greater selectivity precisely because they target components of the bacterial ribosome that are distinct from those of eukaryotic ribosomes [
26]. For amikacin, promising results were observed in both standard and multidrug-resistant strains, with synergistic effects reported in all standard strains as well as in the multidrug-resistant
E. coli 06 and
S. aureus 10.
Essential oils, due to their hydrophobic nature, interfere in essential biochemical processes for the cell when they come into contact with bacterial membranes, such as the respiratory chain and energy production, which leads to the deregulation of membrane permeability, facilitating the entry of antibiotic drugs, in addition to interfering in the efflux pump resistance mechanism, since this requires the binding of the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) molecule for its functioning in the “expulsion” of toxic substances [25, 33].
Linked to the hydrophobic character of essential oils, their effects on the antibacterial and modulating activity reported in this research may be related to the various compounds of the terpene class present in their composition that have an intrinsic relationship to this activity [
34].