Abstract: Skin bacterial flora, namely Staphylococcus epidermidis,
are able to metabolise sweat that hence leads to foot odor. Moreover, Bacillus
subtilis was found in the plantar skin of subjects possessing strong foot
odor. The synthetic antibacterial agent generally used in various foot deodorant
formulations is triclosan which tends to cause bacterial tolerance. To avoid
that shortcoming, researchers in this study developed a natural foot deodorant
gel from essential oils. Previous research of our group revealed that cinnamon
oil showed a higher antibacterial activity against S. epidermidis than
the essential oils obtained from kaffir lime, lemongrass, sweet basil, galanga
and ginger. In the present study, the susceptibility of B. subtilis
to the mentioned essential oils was determined and the results showed that cinnamon
oil possessed the highest activity. Foot deodorant gel containing cinnamon oil
was formulated and studied for its biological stability for 90 days at accelerated
conditions. The lethal effect of the cinnamon oil gel exposed to B. subtilis
for 1 h, was studied at day 0, 15, 30, 60 and 90. It was found that on all
sampling days, cinnamon oil gel could decrease by at least 90% the initial bacterial
population after 1 h of contact time. In conclusion, cinnamon oil foot deodorant
gel demonstrated a good ability to decrease the bacteria involved in strong
foot odor. The cinnamon oil foot deodorant gel might be an alternative cosmetic
for people who have strong foot odor. |