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Review
. 2017 Jan 16:7:2161.
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2016.02161. eCollection 2016.

Essential Oils: Sources of Antimicrobials and Food Preservatives

Abhay K Pandey  1 , Pradeep Kumar  2 , Pooja Singh  1 , Nijendra N Tripathi  1 , Vivek K Bajpai  3
Affiliations
Review

Essential Oils: Sources of Antimicrobials and Food Preservatives

Abhay K Pandey et al. Front Microbiol. .

Abstract

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.

Keywords: antibacterial; antifungal; bioactivity; essential oils; food preservative properties.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Different activities and uses of essential oils.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Actives compounds of essential oils. Figure as originally published in Hyldgaard et al. (2012).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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