Abstract

Infectious diseases caused by pathogens and food poisoning caused by spoilage microorganisms are threatening human health all over the world. The efficacies of some antimicrobial agents, which are currently used to extend shelf-life and increase the safety of food products in food industry and to inhibit disease-causing microorganisms in medicine, have been weakened by microbial resistance. Therefore, new antimicrobial agents that could overcome this resistance need to be discovered. Many spices—such as clove, oregano, thyme, cinnamon, and cumin—possessed significant antibacterial and antifungal activities against food spoilage bacteria like Bacillus subtilis and Pseudomonas fluorescens, pathogens like Staphylococcus aureus and Vibrio parahaemolyticus, harmful fungi like Aspergillus flavus, even antibiotic resistant microorganisms such as methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Therefore, spices have a great potential to be developed as new and safe antimicrobial agents. This review summarizes scientific studies on the antibacterial and antifungal activities of several spices and their derivatives.

Details

Title
Antibacterial and Antifungal Activities of Spices
Author
Liu, Qing 1 ; Meng, Xiao 1 ; Li, Ya 1 ; Cai-Ning, Zhao 1 ; Guo-Yi, Tang 1 ; Hua-Bin, Li 2 

 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition and Health, Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China 
 Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition and Health, Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510080, China; South China Sea Bioresource Exploitation and Utilization Collaborative Innovation Center, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou 510006, China 
First page
1283
Publication year
2017
Publication date
2017
Publisher
MDPI AG
ISSN
16616596
e-ISSN
14220067
Source type
Scholarly Journal
Language of publication
English
ProQuest document ID
2685299281
Copyright
© 2017 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Notwithstanding the ProQuest Terms and Conditions, you may use this content in accordance with the terms of the License.