COMPOUNDS WITH in vitro ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY FROM HYDROSOL OF Lippia palmerI AND MORPHOMETRIC CHANGES ON Listeria monocytogenes

Abstract

Foodborne diseases have increased, and with it, the interest to discover new natural antimicrobials; the use of aromatic plants, due to the extraction and use of the essential oil (EO), are widely studied and with great biological activity. However, studies with hydrosols (HS) from aromatic plants are limited. The aim in this study was to evaluate the antibacterial activity of HS from Lippia palmeri plant against the bacterial pathogen L. monocytogenes. HS was obtained by hydrodistillation and fractionation thereof by open column chromatography. The antibacterial activity was performed by disk diffusion. The inhibitory concentration (IC50) was estimated using the PROBIT survival analysis. Ampicillin was used as control. To evaluate the diameter and cellular damage, optical microscopy and epifluorescence were used, respectively. The characterization was performed by spectroscopy. HS showed IC50 of 224 μL/mL and from HS two fractions were obtained. The fraction with the highest activity showed an IC50 of 125 mg/mL and rosmarinic acid and a phthalate derivative were identified from this fraction. HS, showed bioactivity against L. monocytogenes. Therefore, this would be a candidate for use as an active ingredient in the disinfection of food and areas in contact with them.