Trad. Med. J., September-December 2021 Vol. 26(3), p 188-196 ISSN-p : 1410-5918 ISSN-e : 2406-9086 188 DOI: 10.22146/mot.68323 | Traditional Medicine Journal, 26(3), 202 Submitted : 09-08-2021 Revised : 28-10-2021 Accepted : 19-11-2021 Antibacterial Activity of Laja Gowah (Alpinia malaccensis (Brum.f) Roscoe) Oil in Reducing the Number of Staphylococcus aureus Colonies in Hospital Wards Khoirun Nisyak * Sekolah Tinggi Ilmu Kesehatan Rumah Sakit Anwar Medika, Sidoarjo ABSTRACT Staphylococcus aureus is one of the pathogenic bacteria that cause nosocomial infections in hospitals. The use of essential oil-based antibacterials for hospital wards was developed to prevent nosocomial infections. Laja gowah oil is an essential oil isolated from the Alpinia malaccensis plant, which belongs to the Zingiberaceae plant group. The purpose of this study was to determine the antibacterial activity of laja gowah oil in reducing the number of S. aureus colonies in hospital inpatient rooms through the air diffusion method. The compound content in laja gowah oil was analyzed with GC-MS. The study of antibacterial activity using the total plant counts continued with the colony count test, Gram staining, catalase test, and coagulase test. Laja gowah oil contains methyl cinnamate and 1,8-cineole. The installation time of the diffuser containing laja gowah oil affects the number of colonies of S. aureus bacteria in hospital wards. The antibacterial activity of laja gowah oil was influenced by the synergistic effect of methyl cinnamate and 1,8-cineole compounds. Keywords: laja gowah; Staphylococcus aureus; nosocomial infection; hospital wards; diffuser essential oil INTRODUCTION The hospital is a community health service center providing comprehensive services, healing disease (curative), and disease prevention (preventive). The treatment room is a space for patients who need continuous care and nursing services and treatment for more than 24 hours (Kemenkes, 2016). The hospital environment has a significant influence on the patient's healing process. Unclean environmental conditions can be an excellent place for breeding disease vectors and can be a factor in the occurrence of nosocomial infections (Hidayati et al., 2017). Nosocomial infection is an infection that develops in a hospital environment (Guo & Li, 2019). Nosocomial infections are among the biggest causes of death in hospital treatment patients, especially in the third class of hospital wards, which have a crowded home environment. The activity of moving patients from one unit to another is mainly done in that place. The percentage of nosocomial infections in the world's hospitals reaches 9% or more than 1.4 million hospitalized patients worldwide. The causes of nosocomial infections include the use of medical equipment, treatment items, aids for defecation and urination, as well as through air circulation (Khan et al., 2017). Nosocomial infections can occur in patients, health workers, *Corresponding author : Khoirun Nisyak Email : nisachemist@gmail.com And hospital visitors. This infection can be transmitted through staff health, sick people, visitors with status career, or hospital conditions. One of the causes of nosocomial infections in hospital inpatient rooms is Staphylococcus aureus (Horváth et al., 2016). Some infections caused by the pathogenic bacterium S. aureus are associated with mortality rates comparable to those caused by HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, and viral hepatitis. (Coté et al., 2016). Bazargani & Rohloff (2016) reported that the infection caused by Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is relatively high; there are about 14 million health cases for the skin. In most cases of infection due to pathogenic bacteria, the spread is through air media (airborne). Antibacterial materials need to be used to suppress the spread of pathogenic bacteria in the air in hospital inpatient rooms. Handling to suppress the spread of pathogenic bacteria in hospital wards has been carried out by cleaning the floor with carbolic fluid and spraying a disinfectant with an active ingredient of sodium hypochlorite. Most floor cleaners and disinfectants contain chlorine which is corrosive and has a long-term adverse effect on the respiratory tract (Clausen et al., 2020). Therefore, other methods are needed to use antibacterial ingredients, one of which is by using essential oils that can suppress the growth of pathogenic bacteria. One method of distributing essential oil molecules as antibacterial in the air is the air diffusion method by utilizing a humidifier