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The effect of essential oils of basil on the growth of Aeromonas hydrophila and Pseudomonas fluorescens
Author(s) -
Jason Wan,
A. B. Wilcock,
M.J. Coventry
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
journal of applied microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.889
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1365-2672
pISSN - 1364-5072
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-2672.1998.00338.x
Subject(s) - pseudomonas fluorescens , aeromonas hydrophila , antimicrobial , aeromonas , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , pseudomonas , clostridium sporogenes , food science , bacteria , agar , minimum inhibitory concentration , essential oil , clostridium , genetics
Basil essential oils, including basil sweet linalool (BSL) and basil methyl chavicol (BMC), were screened for antimicrobial activity against a range of Gram‐positive and Gram‐negative bacteria, yeasts and moulds using an agar well diffusion method. Both essential oils showed antimicrobial activity against most of the micro‐organisms examined except Clostridium sporogenes , Flavimonas oryzihabitans , and three species of Pseudomonas . The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of BMC against Aeromonas hydrophila and Pseudomonas fluorescens in TSYE broth (as determined using an indirect impedance method) was 0·125 and 2% (v/v), respectively; the former was not greatly affected by the increase of challenge inoculum from 10 3 to 10 6 cfu ml −1 . Results with resting cells demonstrated that BMC was bactericidal to both Aer. hydrophila and Ps. fluorescens . The growth of Aer. hydrophila in filter‐sterilized lettuce extract was completely inhibited by 0·1% (v/v) BMC whereas that of Ps. fluorescens was not significantly affected by 1% (v/v) BMC. In addition, the effectiveness of washing fresh lettuce with 0·1 or 1% (v/v) BMC on survival of natural microbial flora was comparable with that effected by 125 ppm chlorine.