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Potential of Medicinal Plants as Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Agents in Food Industry: A Hypothesis
Author(s) -
OrtegaRamirez Luis Alberto,
RodriguezGarcia Isela,
Leyva Juan Manuel,
CruzValenzuela Manuel Reynaldo,
SilvaEspinoza Brenda Adriana,
GonzalezAguilar Gustavo A.,
Siddiqui Md Wasim,
AyalaZavala Jesus Fernando
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
journal of food science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1750-3841
pISSN - 0022-1147
DOI - 10.1111/1750-3841.12341
Subject(s) - antimicrobial , food spoilage , food preservatives , preservative , food industry , antioxidant , context (archaeology) , microbiology and biotechnology , food science , food additive , medicinal plants , food products , traditional medicine , business , chemistry , biology , medicine , bacteria , biochemistry , paleontology , genetics
Many food preservation strategies can be used for the control of microbial spoilage and oxidation; however, these quality problems are not yet controlled adequately. Although synthetic antimicrobial and antioxidant agents are approved in many countries, the use of natural safe and effective preservatives is a demand of food consumers and producers. This paper proposes medicinal plants, traditionally used to treat health disorders and prevent diseases, as a source of bioactive compounds having food additive properties. Medicinal plants are rich in terpenes and phenolic compounds that present antimicrobial and antioxidant properties; in addition, the literature revealed that these bioactive compounds extracted from other plants have been effective in food systems. In this context, the present hypothesis paper states that bioactive molecules extracted from medicinal plants can be used as antimicrobial and antioxidant additives in the food industry.