EFFECT OF CITRUS FRUIT (CITRUS SINENSIS, CITRUS LIMON AND CITRUS AURANTIFOLIA) RIND ESSENTIAL OILS ON PRESERVATION OF CHICKEN MEAT ARTIFICIALLY INFECTED WITH BACTERIA

Abstract

Essential oils (EOs) obtained from a wide variety of plants have become popular with increased scientific interest as potential natural agents for food preservation. Twoconcentrations of rind EOs (400 mg/ml and 200 mg/ml) from three species of citrusfruit; Citrus sinensis (Sweet orange), Citrus limon (Lemon), and Citrus aurantifolia(Lime) were used to treat fresh chicken meat inoculated with Escherichia coli ATCC25922, Salmonella typhi ATCC 20971 and Salmonella enterica ATCC 14028 toevaluate their protective abilities on bacteria-contaminated meat The EOs wereextracted from the ground rinds by hydro-distillation. Alongside the EOs, sodiumnitrate (NaNO3) was used as a positive control preservative. A viable count was carriedout to determine the bacteria load reduction on the inoculated fresh chicken meat. After24 hours of treatment, the results showed that the EOs had no adverse effect on thephysical attributes of the meat: the color and smell of the chicken meat were unalteredcompared with the negative control (None EO and NaNO3 treated meat) that showedevidence of putrefaction through color change and foul smell. The two-lime rind EOsconcentrations used to treat the Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 inoculated meat reducedthe viable count of the organism by 7.9 log compared to the Escherichia coli ATCC25922-inoculated meat which received no rind EOs or NaNO3 treatment. Other resultsshowed that sweet orange (SO) rind EOs (400 mg/ml and 200 mg/ml) treatment ofmeat inoculated with Salmonella enterica ATCC 14028 had similar but mildpreservative effects as both treatments reduced the log of the bacteria by 1.1 and 0.8,respectively. In comparison with NaNO3, the EOs treatment had a significant (p<0.05)preservative effect on the bacteria-inoculated meats. Findings from this study,therefore, suggest that Citrus spp. rind EOs have good potential as natural preservativefor chicken meat. However, notwithstanding the relative positive organoleptic resultsobserved in this study, further investigations on the prolonged preservation effect of theEOs on the physical attributes of fresh chicken meat need to be undertaken