Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2025 Feb 27;41(3):81.
doi: 10.1007/s11274-025-04289-8.

Synergistic anti-biofilm strategy based on essential oils and its application in the food industry

Pei Yang  1   2   3   4 , Yuxiao Huo  1   2   3   4 , Qingli Yang  1   2   3   4 , Fangyuan Zhao  1   2   3   4 , Changjian Li  5 , Jian Ju  6   7   8   9
Affiliations
Review

Synergistic anti-biofilm strategy based on essential oils and its application in the food industry

Pei Yang et al. World J Microbiol Biotechnol. .

Abstract

The microbial biofilm can induce a variety of food safety problems, and cause huge economic losses. Essential oils (EOs) not only have broad-spectrum antibacterial activity but also have a good ability to inhibit biofilm. However, the addition dose of EOs in practical application usually exceeds their flavor threshold, resulting in the appearance of undesired flavor. Therefore, synergistic antimicrobial may be a potential strategy to improve the antibacterial activity of EOs and to reduce their dosage. This paper focuses on the analysis of the synergistic anti-biofilm strategies based on EOs. Based on these, the action mechanism of EOs against biofilm and other commonly used anti-biofilm strategies in the food industry are summarized. The anti-biofilm mechanism of EOs is mainly related to inhibiting the synthesis of extracellular polysaccharides and proteins, destroying biofilm structure, inhibiting the metabolic activity of biofilm, inhibiting quorum sensing (QS) and regulating the formation of biofilm and the expression of toxicity-related genes. At present, the commonly used anti-biofilm strategies in the food industry mainly include physical strategies, chemical strategies and biological strategies, among which the combined application of different strategies is the future development trend. In particular, the synergistic anti-biofilm strategy based on EOs has shown great application value in the food industry. To sum up, some new information in this paper will give guidance and provide more reference for the development of efficient biofilm regulation strategies in future.

Keywords: Anti-biofilm mechanism; Application strategy; Essential oils; Food industry; Synergistic anti-biofilm.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interests: The authors declare no competing interests.

References

    1. Baker P, Hill PJ, Snarr BD, Alnabelseya N, Pestrak MJ, Lee MJ, Howell PL (2016) Exopolysaccharide biosynthetic glycoside hydrolases can be utilized to disrupt and prevent Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. Science advances, 2(5):e1501632
    1. Banu SF, Rubini D, Shanmugavelan P et al (2018) Effects of patchouli and cinnamon essential oils on biofilm and hyphae formation by Candida species. J Mycol Med 28(2):332–339
    1. Blanchette KA, Wenke JC (2018) Current therapies in treatment and prevention of fracture wound biofilms: why a multifaceted approach is essential for resolving persistent infections. Journal of bone and joint infection, 3(2):50–67.
    1. Chackaravarthi G, Chelliah C, Maruthupandy M et al (2022) Effective removal of biofilm formation in Acinetobacter baumannii using chitosan nanoparticles loaded plant essential oils. J King Saud Univ Sci 34(3):101845
    1. Cheruvanachari P, Pattnaik S, Mishra M et al (2023) Deciphering the antibiofilm potential of 2-Phenylethyl methyl ether (PEME), a bioactive compound of Kewda essential oil against Staphylococcus aureus. Microb Pathogenesis 179:106093

LinkOut - more resources