Μελέτη αντιμικροβιακών ιδιοτήτων φυσικών φαινόλων: Δράση έναντι Listeria monocytogenes και Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Abstract

The food industry faces the challenge of a new generation of products characterised by minimal processing and also the restriction of chemical preservatives and additives in their manufacture. The turn to natural origin products is a fact and the need for new techniques to ensure that it is growing. The present study investigates the possible antimicrobial activity of five natural phenols, cinnamic acid, 3-hydroxycinnamic, caffeic, chlorogenic and Rosmarinic acid against the microorganisms Listeria monocytogenes and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The antimicrobial activity was investigated by calculating the minimum concentrations of the natural phenols required to cause inhibition (MIC) and death (MBC) to the two micro-organisms. The MIC and MBC were calculated by measuring the optical density (photometric method). The possible relationship between the structure of the studied substances with the activity was also investigated using the ChemBioOffice 2012 software. The MIC was correlated with some properties of the structure of substances, such as polarity, solubility, molecular weight, TPSA and dissociation constant (pKa). The results demonstrated that the hydroxycinnamic acids, the category of natural phenols studied, were not as active as synthetic preparations. Despite that they can be used as precursor molecules for the production of other powerful active molecules with stronger anti-microbial action.