Comparative study on the antimicrobial effects of essential oils from peels of three citrus fruits

The use of Essential Oils as antimicrobial agents have become popular over the years in an attempt to find alternative ways of dealing with strains of bacteria that have become resistant to conventional antibiotics. This study was carried out to compare the antimicrobial effects of Citrus peel essential oils obtained from Okene Main Market, 7'33'4.39'' N 6'14'9.20'' E, Kogi State, Nigeria, on the clinical isolates of some microorganisms (Escherichia coli, Pseudesomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Aspergillus niger). The oils were extracted from the peels using the cold maceration method with n-hexane as the solvent. The agar diffusion method was used to test the susceptibility of the micro-organism strains using ciprofloxacin as the standard positive control. The experiment was carried out in duplicates and obtained data was analysed using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan Multiple Range Test (DMRT), with P<0.05 considered significant. The results revealed that Orange (Citrus sinensis) exhibited the inhibitoriest effect on the test isolates followed by lime (Citus aurantifolia) and Lemon (Citrus Limon) with the least significant effect.