Infection Prevention and Control

Biography

Biography: Giuseppe Cannillo

Abstract

Current methods of sanitation of food facilities have some well-known drawbacks, such as toxicity of cleaning agents residues, or promotion of resistance to these agents in enteric pathogens. Therefore, there is a strong requirement to develop alternative sanitation and disinfection methods. A particularly challenging problem in many environments, including food processing areas, is the presence of biofilms. These accumulations of inorganic and organic materials and bacteria can develop on most types of surfaces. Both pathogenic and non-pathogenic microorganisms can be incorporated into biofilms during their progressive formation. Although biofilms can become strongly attached to surfaces, parts of the biofilm can occasionally slough off to contaminate other surfaces as well as food products, when in a food processing environment. Biofilms that contain Listeria , Pseudomonas, Campylobacter, Escherichia coli or Salmonella all have been observed in food processing environments. Biofilms are highly prevalent and difficult to remove and bacteria in them have enhanced resistance to antimicrobial agents and sanitizers. During recent years, plant essential oils have come more into the focus of phytomedicine. Especially, the antimicrobial and antioxidant activities of essential oils . The essential oil from the common herb Origanumvulgare may be an effective treatment against dangerous, and sometimes drug-resistant bacteria. Our research was centered on creating nanoemulsions that were able to enhance the antimicrobial activity of Origanumvulgare essential oil against pathogenic bacteria. Nanoemulsions are a vehicle for the delivery of anantimicrobial agent. The physical structure of the nanoemulsion contains surfactants and solvents that have antimicrobial activity. The surfactant activity specifically disrupts pathogenic microorganisms through fusion with the membrane of the microbe, leading to the rapid lysis of the targeted organism. This mechanism of action has been documented in preliminary studies examining the in vitro virucidal, bactericidal and sporicidal effects of these compounds. All Compounds used are classified as GRAS ( Generally Recognized As Safe) by the FDA and are all compounds used in the food industry.

Methods: Cationic Nanoemulsions were prepared by making stock solutions of 100 mg/ml ofOriganumvulgare essential oil. Samples of this solution was utilized as samples for serial dilutions. A macro-broth-dilution technique was used to determine the susceptibility of the bacteria to the essential oil of Origanumvulgare. The MBC was determined by subculturing a 0.01-mL volume of the medium drawn from the culture tubes after 48 h on Mueller Hinton Agar and incubated further for bacterial growth.

Conclusion: Our Research has confirmed that our Cationic Nanoemulsion of Origanumvulgare has a MBC of 7 ppm and a surface biofilm bactericidal activity time of 10 minutes.