Interaction of Four Monoterpenes Contained in Essential Oils with Model Membranes:  Implications for Their Antibacterial Activity

The present article reports the antimicrobial efficacy of four monoterpenes (thymol, carvacrol, p-cymene, and gamma-terpinene) against the Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus and the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli. For a better understanding of their mechanism of action, the damage caused by these four monoterpenes on biomembranes was evaluated by monitoring the release, following exposure to the compounds under study, of the water-soluble fluorescent marker carboxyfluorescein (CF) from large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) with different lipidic composition (phosphatidylcholine, PC, phosphatidylcholine/phosphatidylserine, PC/PS, 9:1; phosphatidylcholine/stearylamine, PC/SA, 9:1). Furthermore,…