Antibiofilm activity of carvacrol against Listeria monocytogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm on MBEC™ biofilm device and polypropylene surface

Abstract

Biofilm may influence bacterial susceptibility to traditional disinfectants but identifying effective natural disinfectants as alternatives remains a great challenge to researchers. The objective of this research was to examine antibiofilm activity of carvacrol against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Listeria monocytogenes. It was found that different concentrations of carvacrol dramatically reduced the P. aeruginosa and L. monocytogenes biofilms developed on both the MBEC™ biofilm device and polypropylene surface. On the MBEC™ biofilm device, the biofilm reduction was 5.04 log CFU/peg at 0.06% carvacrol for P. aeruginosa, and 3.81 log CFU/peg at 0.12% carvacrol for L. monocytogenes. On the polypropylene surface, P. aeruginosa was reduced by 4.79 log CFU/cm2 at 0.06% carvacrol, and L. monocytogenes was reduced by 4.62 log CFU/cm2 at 0.12% carvacrol. Visual observations using advanced microscopy confirmed the biofilm reduction results for both bacteria. This study demonstrated that carvacrol has potential use as a natural compound to prevent P. aeruginosa and L. monocytogenes related contaminations of food contact surfaces. These findings suggest that carvacrol could be used to formulate new sanitizers able to inhibit P. aeruginosa and L. monocytogenes biofilms.