Antimicrobial effects of spices and herbs essential oils

Abstract

Spices and herbs have been used as food additives since ancient times, as flavouring agents but also as natural food preservatives. A number of spices shows antimicrobial activity against different types of microorganisms. This article gives a literature review of recent investigations considering antimicrobial activity of essential oils widely used spices and herbs, such as garlic, mustard, cinnamon, cumin, clove, bay, thyme, basil, oregano, pepper, ginger, sage, rosemary etc., against most common bacteria and fungi that contaminate food (Listeria spp., Staphylococcus spp., Salmonella spp., Escherichia spp., Pseudomonas spp., Aspergillus spp., Cladosporium spp. and many others). Antimicrobial activity depends on the type of spice or herb, type of food and microorganism, as well as on the chemical composition and content of extracts and essential oils. Summarizing results of different investigations, relative antimicrobial effectiveness can be made, and it shows that cinnamon, cloves and mustrad have very strong antimicrobial potential, cumin, oregano, sage, thyme and rosemary show medium inhibitory effect, and spices such as pepper and ginger have weak inhibitory effect.Zacini i lekovito bilje koriste se kao dodaci hrani jos od davnina, u svojstvu arome, kao poboljsivaci ukusa a takodje i kao prirodni konzervansi. Veliki broj zacina i lekovitog bilja pokazuje antimikrobno i antifungalno delovanje prema odredjenim mikroorganizmima. Ovaj rad daje literaturni pregled novih istrazivanja koja se ticu navedene aktivnosti esencijalnih ulja siroko rasprostranjenih zacina i lekovitog bilja, kao sto su beli luk, slacica, cimet, kumin, karanfilic, lovor, majcina dusica, bosiljak, origano, biber, djumbir, zalfija, ruzmarin i dr., protiv najcescih bakterija i gljiva koje kontaminiraju hranu (Listeria spp., Staphylococcus spp., Salmonella spp., Escherichia spp., Pseudomonas spp., Aspergillus spp., Cladosporium spp. i mnogi drugi). Antimikrobna aktivnost zavisi od vrste zacina, vrste namirnica i mikroorganizama na koje se primenjuje, kao i od hemijskog sastava i koncentracije ekstrakata ili esencijalnih ulja zacina. Sumiranjem rezultata dobijenih od strane razlicitih autora, moze se izvesti zakljucak o relativnoj antimikrobnoj i antifungalnoj efikasnosti odredjenih zacina i lekovitog bilja, prema kome cimet, karanfilic i slacica imaju veoma jak antimikrobni potencijal, kumin, origano, zalfija, majcina dusica i ruzmarin imaju srednji, dok biber i djumbir imaju slab inhibitorni efekat.