Development and characterization of essential oils incorporated chitosan-based cues with antibacterial and antifungal potentialities

Abstract

Herein, we report the characterization of chitosan-based cues incorporated with two different essential oils, i.e., tea tree oil (TTO) and clove oil (CO). The essential oils incorporated chitosan-based cues offer considerable solutions to eliminate pathogenic infections and/or to reduce microbial contaminations in healthcare facilities. In this background, chitosan(CST)-based cues were incorporated with TTO and CO and final cues were designated as CST-TTO and CST-CO. The loading efficiency was optimal in CST-TTO (91.5%) followed by CST-CO (83.3%). The optimally yielded both, CST-TTO and CST-CO were tested for antibacterial activities against two Gram+ve ( Staphylococcus aureus , and Bacillus subtilis ) and two Gram-ve strains ( Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium ). An initial bacterial cell count (1.5 x 10 8 CFU/mL) was considered as a control value, and 2-log reduction was considered to report the antibacterial activity. The antifungal activity was tested against two Aspergillus strains, i.e., Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus . The growth reduction for Aspergillus strains was recorded from 1 × 10 8 conidia/mL (initial count) to 1 × 10 2 conidia/mL (optimal inhibition) in the presence of CST-TTO and CST-CO. In summary, the results suggest that the newly developed CST-TTO and CST-CO cues can be potential candidates for food and biomedical applications as they hold promising capability to restrict some pathogenic and food spoilage microbes.