Antibacterial Effects of Extracts of Thuja Orientalis cv Aurea Nana Cones against Food-spoilage and Food-borne Pathogens

BACKGROUND: Nowadays, Chemical antiseptics have become great problems for health and environmental, so that developing of new substitutes for chemical antiseptics is more and more important. Natural product is a kind of environment-friendly additive that could be used as antiseptic in food industry. Thuja orientalis cv Aurea Nana is a gymnospermous plant of the family Cupressaceae, native to northwestern China and widely naturalised elsewhere in Korea and Japan. This study was aimed to investigate the antibacterial potential of various organic extracts from T. orientalis cones against some food-borne and food-spoilage bacteria. METHODS AND RESULTS: Hexane extract (HE), chloroform extract (CE), ethyl acetate extract (EAE) and methanol extract (ME) were obtained from female cones of T. orientalis. The antibacterial activities of various extracts were tested by standard agar diffusion and minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) against five gram-positive and six gram-negative bacteria. Cell viability and morphology change of L. monocytogenes ATCC 10943 treated with hexane extract were also observed. The various extracts displayed remarkable antibacterial effects against all the gram-positive bacteria but did not show any effect against the gram-negative bacteria. Hexane extract has the highest inhibitory effect on cell viability of L. monocytogenes ATCC 10943. SEM observation also demonstrated the damaging effect of the hexane extract on the morphology of L. monocytogenes ATCC 10943 at the minimum inhibitory concentration. CONCLUSION(s): The tested gram-positive bacteria were significantly inhibited by organic extracts of T. orientalis cone. Hexane extract was the most potent against Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 10943, as evidenced by the lowest MIC level and the complete inhibition of cell viability within shortest exposure time, along with SEM observation.