Abstract

Skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI) caused by staphylococcal toxins including Panton-Valentine leukocidin (PVL) have increased these last years. Treatment of these complicated infections is often difficult. The search for new methods and new antimicrobial substances is necessary. Natural products such as essential oils appear among the possible solutions. The objective of our work was to prove the effectiveness of treatment of these infections with essential oils in vivo on Wistar rats; we have chosen the oil of Origanum glandulosum from Algeria to perform this treatment because of its antiseptic properties. The treatment was done on infections induced in Wistar rats using PVL producing Staphylococcus aureus strain isolated from Tlemcen University Hospital. The results of our experiment have shown a significant decrease in the number of colonies collected from rats treated by the concentrations of 1 and 5% of O. glandulosum essential oil. The treatment of skin infections especially wounds caused by PVL positive S. aureus is possible with the essential oil of O. glandulosumwhich seems to be effective in eradicating the germ from infected wounds.

Key words: PVL-producing, Staphylococcus aureus, essential oil, skin infection,Origanum glandulosum.