Activity of antibacterial phytochemicals and their potential use as natural food preservatives

Abstract

The risk to human health from bacterial foodborne infection is presently controlled by the addition of antimicrobial preservatives to food. However, the use of chemical preservatives such as sodium nitrite poses a health risk in themselves with concerns around carcinogenic effects. This makes the development of improved preservatives a priority for the food industry. One promising source of novel antimicrobial compounds can be found in nature; phytochemicals, in particular polyphenols are secondary metabolites produced by plants for numerous purposes including antimicrobial defence. There has been significant study of phytochemicals; including quantifying their antimicrobial activity, potential to synergise with current antibiotics and the feasibility of their application as natural food preservatives. However, there remains significant uncertainty about the relative antimicrobial efficacy of different phytochemicals, their mechanisms of action (MOA) and the potential for emergence of bacterial resistance to their effects. This review summarizes recent work relevant to the potential development of phytochemicals as antimicrobial agents.

Keywords:

• Antimicrobial resistance
• AMR
• phenolics
• flavonoids
• natural products

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) gratefully acknowledge the support of the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC); this research was funded by the BBSRC Institute Strategic Programmes Microbes in the Food Chain BB/R012504/1 and its constituent project BBS/E/F/000PR10349 and Food Innovation and Health BB/R012512/1 (and its constituent project BBS/E/F/000PR10343 Food Innovation) and by the BBSRC Norwich Research Park Biosciences Doctoral Training Partnership, grant number BB/M011216/1, as a CASE Award to RS in collaboration with Nestlé.