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Screening and Analysis of Spices with Ability to Suppress Verocytotoxin Production by Escherichia coli O157
Author(s) -
Takemasa Niro,
Ohnishi Shinya,
Tsuji Makiko,
Shikata Tomoko,
Yokoigawa Kumio
Publication year - 2009
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/j.1750-3841.2009.01326.x
Subject(s) - verocytotoxin , escherichia coli , vtec , production (economics) , biology , microbiology and biotechnology , chemistry , food science , biochemistry , gene , economics , macroeconomics
To reduce the amounts of verocytotoxin (VT) produced by Escherichia coli O157:H7, various spices were screened for their ability to suppress VT production. Extracts of these spices were prepared with 70% ethyl alcohol. When E. coli O157:H7 cells were grown to the stationary phase at 37 °C in Luria‐Bertani medium supplemented with 0.02% allspice extract, the production of both VT1 and VT2 was significantly reduced. Neither growth inhibition nor a delay in the lag phase was observed when the cells were cultured in the presence of 0.02% allspice extract. An active component of the allspice extract was purified by HPLC and was identified as eugenol. When we examined the suppressive effect of eugenol on VT production by E. coli O157:H7, the amounts of both intracellular and extracellular VTs were found to decrease with an increase in eugenol concentration. Our results suggest that eugenol is useful for reducing the virulence of E. coli O157:H7.