Study on Antimicrobial Activity of Citrus Essential Oil

At present, the food science and technology circles are increasingly opposed to the use of chemical bacteriostatic agents in foods. This has led the industry to pay more and more attention to the research of natural source bacteriostatic agents. The reasons for the emergence of this situation are diverse, not only the needs of consumers, changes in legislation, and the improvement of the separation and purification technology of natural antibiotics. In the past, citrus oils were always used as seasonings, but researchers at the University of Nottingham, UK, recently discovered that citrus oils have very good potential for bacteriostatic applications and are fully capable of replacing the bacteriostatic agents used today, not only because they have Very high safety, but also very good inhibition of Gram-positive bacteria and negative bacteria.

According to reports, researchers have demonstrated through experiments that citrus oil has great potential as a bacteriostatic agent, and pointed out that research in this area has only just begun. If this research result is to be applied to practice, there are still some problems that need to be solved. . The researchers said that the experimental results showed that: In addition to harmful microorganisms, citrus oil can also kill other microorganisms in the human gastrointestinal tract. This means that if rush to use citrus oil, it may cause imbalance in the body's gastrointestinal microflora system. Studies have found that orange, citrus, lemon, lime, grapefruit and other essential oils have such properties.

At the same time, citrus oil has a very strong flavor, how to make it have a certain concentration to produce bacteriostatic, but at the same time not because of the high concentration and affect the flavor of the final product, but also a problem that needs to be solved. The researchers also stated that the antibacterial mechanism of citrus essential oils is not clear at present, although there are many theories have been proposed, generally mentioned morphological changes, for example, some reports pointed out: essential oils can cause the breakdown of the bacterial membrane; some studies It is believed that essential oils can make the cell walls of bacteria thin, leading to the collapse of cell walls.

Researchers mentioned some very good application examples in the article. include:

● Aquatic products For fresh aquatic products, the shelf life is only 3 days. However, studies have found that at 20°C, linalool and citral can significantly reduce the number of microorganisms in fish gills, skins and fish guts.

● Adding 5% of citrus powder to meat products can significantly inhibit the lactic acid bacteria in beef balls for up to 12 days, but for chicken meat, the effect is not so obvious.

● Dairy products For dairy products, sensory evaluation found that only the essential oils of orange, lemon, and grapefruit can be used in milk, but studies have found that terpineol is strong against Salmonella, E. coli, Pseudomonas, etc. Inhibitory effect.