Essential Oils: Sources of Antimicrobials and Food Preservatives

Aromatic and medicinal plants produce essential oils in the form of secondary metabolites. These essential oils can be used in diverse applications in food, perfume, and cosmetic industries. The use of essential oils as antimicrobials and food preservative agents is of concern because of several rep...

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Published inFrontiers in microbiology Vol. 7; p. 2161
Main Authors Pandey, Abhay K, Kumar, Pradeep, Singh, Pooja, Tripathi, Nijendra N, Bajpai, Vivek K
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Switzerland Frontiers Media S.A 16.01.2017
Subjects
Microbiology
antifungal
antibacterial
bioactivity
essential oils
food preservative properties
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Summary:Aromatic and medicinal plants produce essential oils in the form of secondary metabolites. These essential oils can be used in diverse applications in food, perfume, and cosmetic industries. The use of essential oils as antimicrobials and food preservative agents is of concern because of several reported side effects of synthetic oils. Essential oils have the potential to be used as a food preservative for cereals, grains, pulses, fruits, and vegetables. In this review, we briefly describe the results in relevant literature and summarize the uses of essential oils with special emphasis on their antibacterial, bactericidal, antifungal, fungicidal, and food preservative properties. Essential oils have pronounced antimicrobial and food preservative properties because they consist of a variety of active constituents (e.g., terpenes, terpenoids, carotenoids, coumarins, curcumins) that have great significance in the food industry. Thus, the various properties of essential oils offer the possibility of using natural, safe, eco-friendly, cost-effective, renewable, and easily biodegradable antimicrobials for food commodity preservation in the near future.
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Reviewed by: Jayanta Kumar Patra, Dongguk University, South Korea; Jay Prakash Verma, Banaras Hindu University, India; Pawan Kumar Maurya, Amity University, India
This article was submitted to Microbiotechnology, Ecotoxicology and Bioremediation, a section of the journal Frontiers in Microbiology
Edited by: Bhim Pratap Singh, Mizoram University, India
ISSN:1664-302X
1664-302X
DOI:10.3389/fmicb.2016.02161