The consumer market requirement induces the cosmetic industry to generate safer and less aggressive products including the natural products. Within the natural products formulation process, the most demanding challenge is the final product conservation. In order to cope with the conservation factor, some natural oils (copaiba, rosemary, melaleuca, garlic, andiroba), propolis and two natural ingredients (one multifunctional ingredient extracted from olive leaves and farnesol) which are available and usually supplied to the cosmetic industry, were considered in this analysis. The chosen method was the agar in plaque with modificed hole. The chosen microorganisms were: Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 6538), Escherichia coli (ATCC 8739), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 9027) and Candida albicans (ATCC 10231). The best results were achieved by melaleuca and rosemary oils, which showed bacteriostatic and fungistatic activity against the four microorganisms.
Propolis; melaleuca oil; rosemary oil; copaiba oil; garlic oil; andiroba oil
