Abstract
Essential oils have great potential in the field of the food industry as they can effectively prevent the presence of several bacterial and fungal pathogens. Essential oils are complex volatile compounds, synthesized naturally in different plant parts during the process of the secondary metabolism. The main goal of this work is to perform a qualitative evaluation of the antibacterial properties of 24 chemotyped essential oils against the growth of Bacillus subtillis. These Gram-positive bacteria are responsible for “rope” disease in bread preservation processes. The study was carried out using the method of disk-diffusion in agar. Biological activity was observed in five essential oils: Cymbopogon martinii var. motia, Thymus vulgaris QT Linanol, Thymus satureioides, Mentha piperita and Eugenia caryophyllus. The first three have in common the presence of some mono terpenic derivatives—Geraniol, Linalool and Carvacrol, respectively—with strong antimicrobial effects. The Cymbopogon martinii essential oil is one of the botanicals with the highest geraniol content (up to 80.53%) and showed more activity antimicrobial than the others. A contributing role of this knowledge could be the design of Cymbopogon martinii essential oil formula, which can be used in bakery industry as a preservative, such as nano-encapsulation for bakery doughs, active packaging of baked products or surface disinfectants.
Highlights
Essential oils (EO) are aromatic and volatile liquids extracted from plants material, such as flowers, aerial parts, roots, bark, leaves and fruits (Burt, 2004)
EOs and their constituents play a key role in exerting antimicrobial activity; the results of screening of twenty-four EOs (Table A1) were evaluated against B. subtillis
The inhibition of EOs was shown as an inhibition diameter against the bacterial growth
Summary
Essential oils (EO) are aromatic and volatile liquids extracted from plants material, such as flowers, aerial parts, roots, bark, leaves and fruits (Burt, 2004). The chemical composition of EOs is complex, one of them, there may have around of 20–60 different bioactive components and only two or three are the major components at concentration within a range of 20–70%; the others are in traces. These composition of EOs from a one species of plant can differ from the geographic location, the harvesting seasons or extraction method [1,2]. EOs are secondary metabolites formed by plants; their main role is to protect them against conditions of biotic and abiotic stress. The exact mechanisms of bacteriostatic or bactericidal activity and antimicrobial effects of EOs are not exactly known, they are Proceedings 2020, 66, 1; doi:10.3390/proceedings2020066001 www.mdpi.com/journal/proceedings
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
