Essential oils from Artemisia species inhibit biofilm formation and the virulence of Escherichia coli EPEC 2348/69

Abstract

Enteropathogenic Escherichia coli E2346/69 (EPEC) has caused foodborne outbreaks worldwide and the bacterium forms antimicrobial-tolerant biofilms. The anti-biofilm formation of various components of essential oils extracted from selected medicinal plants were investigated and tested on EPEC and wild strains of E. coli. Oils extracted from the family Asteraceae and their major common constituents at 0.031 and 0.062% (V/v) were found to significantly inhibit biofilm formation without affecting the growth of planktonic cells. In addition, three plants belonging to this family (Artemisia herba alba, Artemisia campestris and Artemisia absinthium) played important roles in the antimicrobial activity. Interestingly, their essential oils reduced the ability of E. coli (the EPEC and K12 strains) to form a biofilm. The crystal violet reduction assay showed that the plant extracts tested reduced biofilm formation with the inhibition of bacterial attachment up to 45% for EPEC and 70% for E. coli K-12 after 24 h treatment at 0.62 mg ml⁻¹, demonstrating that Artemisia oils had a high anti-biofilm activity on the bacteria tested. The results indicate that the locus of enterocyte effacement (LEE) acquired by horizontal transfer promotes the formation of the attaching and effacing (A/E) lesion and increases the capacity of the photogen strain (EPEC) to form a biofilm. The chemical composition of the volatile compounds was obtained by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry analysis, which showed that the essential oils consisted of thirty-four compounds. Chamazulene (39.21%), β-pinene (32.07%), and α-thujone (29.39%) were the main constituents of the essential oils of A. herba alba, A. absinthium and A. campestris, respectively.

Keywords:

• E. coli
• EPEC
• essential oil
• biofilm
• Artemisia herba alba
• Artemisia absinthium
• Artemisia campestris

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest with the publication.

Data availability

A sample of the voucher for the aerial part of each plant was submitted to the herbarium of the laboratory (LBE, Bizerta) under the numbers: AA/LBE13-001, AC/LBE 13-002 and AHA/LBE 13-003.