Antimicrobial activity of various essential oils against spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms isolated from meat products

Abstract

Antimicrobial activity of essential oils from Origanum vulgare, Satureja montana, Thymus vulgaris, Pimenta dioica and its major constituents against spoilage and pathogenic microorganisms isolated from meat products was evaluated. Among used test microorganisms Pseudomonas aeruginosa demonstrated the highest resistance and Staphylococcus aureus demonstrated the highest susceptibility to all of the studied essential oils. It was determined that antimicrobial activity of essential oils depended mainly on total content of carvacrol, thymol and eugenol in oil samples. Antimicrobial activity of essential oils decreased parallel to decreasing of carvacrol, thymol and eugenol content. The highest activity demonstrated the oil from O. vulgare, followed by P. dioica, S. montana and T. vulgaris. The studied essential oils from spices were prospective natural antimicrobial for application in food industry for partial replacement of synthetic antimicrobials in meat products. © 2009 Taylor and Francis Group, LLC.