## 1 Introduction  
Lower urinary tract inflammation is a very common problem which occurs particularly in women. It occurs 50 times more often in women than in men [1]. It is estimated that every second woman suffers from a urinary tract infection at least once in her life [2]. This is due to having a short urethra and the small distance between its opening and the vaginal opening and anus. This distance is important because the most common cause of lower urinary tract infections is infection with _Escherichia coli_, which lives in the large intestine [3, 4]. There are four possible routes for microorganisms entering the urinary tract: lymphatic, blood-borne, through continuity, and ascending. Infection with microorganisms through the blood-borne route is rare and most often affects newborns and people with reduced immunity. This route is mainly used by staphylococci, streptococci, _Mycobacterium_, and yeasts of the _Candidia_ genus, but rarely Gram-negative rods. The presence of enteror-urinary fistulas causes the penetration of microorganisms through continuity. In this case,microorganisms pass into the urinary tract directly from the digestive tract [5; 6]. The most common cause of lower urinary tract inflammation, both out-of-hospital and in-hospital, is bacterial infection through the ascending route [6; 7]. Extra hospital infections in this way are mainly related to the specific anatomical structure of the female body and a lack of proper hygienie. Hospital infections are mainly caused by urinary retention, previous urological procedures, catheterization, and a lack of proper hygiene. Insertion of a catheter into the bladder increases the probability of infection by 10%, while with each additional day of keeping the catheter in the urinary tract, the risk of infection increases by 3-10% [6]. The list of microorganisms causing lower urinary tract inflammation is presented below (Table 1). To treat lower urinary tract inflammations, antibiotics are usually used, but their frequent use can lead to vaginal and intestinal dysbiosis, as well as antibiotic resistance of microorganisms. Therefore, preventive measures are desirable to prevent urinary tract infections. Numerous clinical studies indicate that substances of natural origin can provide effective prophylaxis in the case of recurrent infections. The most effective are, among others, cranberries, berberine, essential oils, probiotics, and vitamins [10; 11]. Home remedies for relieving symptoms that occur during inflammation of the urethra and bladder include staying warm [6; 7]. In the case of relieving pain located in the lower abdomen, warm baths lasting no longer than 5-10 min may be helpful [7]. Essential oils with anti-inflammatory and antiseptic properties can be used for baths, including chamomile or sage essential oils [12]. In previous research, the essential oil (EO) from chamomile (_Matricaria chamomilla_ L.) applied on viscose non-woven inserts has been investigated for its antibacterial activity in the gas phase against bacteria that cause lower urinary tract inflammations: _Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis_, and _Pseudomonas aeruginosa_. It was observed that the EO had various impacts on individual bacteria species. The activity of the chamomile essential oil was measured as a biomass loss. The best results were obtained against _S. saprophyticus_ (38% of biomass loss) and _E. faecalis_ (33% of biomass loss) in an EO concentration of 0.204 \(\mu\)L/cm\({}^{3}\). At the concentrations of the essential oil in the atmosphere of 0.054 \(\mu\)L/cm\({}^{3}\) and 0.106 \(\mu\)L/cm\({}^{3}\), chamomile EO caused a loss of biomass for all tested bacterial strains.