Department of Food Science and Istituto per la Ricerca e le Applicazioni Biotecnologiche per la Sicurezza e la Valorizzazione dei Prodotti Tipici e di Qualità, University of Foggia, Via Napoli, 25-71100 Foggia, Italy.
J Food Prot. 2005 Aug;68(8):1664-70. doi: 10.4315/0362-028x-68.8.1664.
A quantitative investigation on the inhibitory activity of thymol against some microorganisms that could represent a potential spoilage risk both in acid and mild thermally treated foods is presented in this work. In order to assess potential biostatic or biocidal activity of thymol, both the growth kinetics and dose-response profiles were obtained and analyzed. A suitable macrodilution methodology based on a turbidimetric technique was adopted to produce inhibitory data used for characterizing microbial susceptibility against thymol at sub-MIC levels. Microbial growth was monitored through absorbance measurements at 420 nm as a function of contact time with the active compound. Moreover, for each tested microorganism, the noninhibitory concentration (NIC) and the MIC were quantified. Results prove that thymol can exert a significant antimicrobial effect on each phase of the growth cycle. The microbial susceptibility and resistance were found to be nonlinearly dose related. It is worth noting that significant biostatic effects were observed at sub-MIC levels.
本工作定量研究了麝香草酚对一些微生物的抑制活性，这些微生物在酸性和轻度热处理食品中都可能是潜在的变质风险因素。为了评估麝香草酚的潜在抑菌或杀菌活性，我们获得并分析了生长动力学和剂量反应曲线。采用基于比浊法的适当宏观稀释方法来产生抑菌数据，用于在亚 MIC 水平下表征微生物对麝香草酚的敏感性。通过在 420nm 处测量吸光度来监测微生物的生长，作为与活性化合物接触时间的函数。此外，针对每种测试的微生物，我们还定量了非抑制浓度（NIC）和 MIC。结果表明，麝香草酚可以对生长周期的各个阶段发挥显著的抗菌作用。微生物的敏感性和抗性被发现与剂量呈非线性关系。值得注意的是，在亚 MIC 水平观察到了显著的抑菌作用。
