1 Healthy Food Evaluation Research Center and.
2 Department of Food Science and Technology, College of Light Industry, Textile and Food Engineering, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610065, People's Republic of China (ORCID: http://orcid.org/0000-0002-3657-8993 [J.B.]); and.
J Food Prot. 2018 Jul;81(7):1187-1192. doi: 10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-18-014.
Quinic acid (QA) and shikimic acid (SA), two kinds of natural organic acids, have been reported to exhibit potent antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus. In this study, the effects of QA and SA on the cellular functions of S. aureus were investigated by measuring the intracellular pH, intracellular and extracellular ATP concentrations, succinate dehydrogenase activity, DNA content, and interactions between SA and QA with S. aureus DNA. Studies of the cellular functions demonstrated that QA could significantly decrease the intracellular pH, whereas SA had no effect on intracellular pH. QA and SA reduced succinate dehydrogenase activity and caused a significant decrease in intracellular ATP concentration but no proportional increase in extracellular ATP. Moreover, QA and SA both could remarkably reduce the DNA content of S. aureus and directly interact with genomic DNA. The results suggested that the effects of QA and SA on cellular functions were distinguishable, although the chemical structures of these two compounds were similar. In conclusion, the results of the present research suggested that SA and QA could be used as antibacterial agents in food preservation.
奎宁酸（QA）和莽草酸（SA）是两种天然有机酸，据报道它们对金黄色葡萄球菌具有很强的抗菌活性。在这项研究中，通过测量细胞内 pH 值、细胞内和细胞外 ATP 浓度、琥珀酸脱氢酶活性、DNA 含量以及 SA 和 QA 与金黄色葡萄球菌 DNA 的相互作用，研究了 QA 和 SA 对金黄色葡萄球菌细胞功能的影响。细胞功能研究表明，QA 可显著降低细胞内 pH 值，而 SA 对细胞内 pH 值没有影响。QA 和 SA 降低了琥珀酸脱氢酶的活性，导致细胞内 ATP 浓度显著降低，但细胞外 ATP 没有相应增加。此外，QA 和 SA 都能显著降低金黄色葡萄球菌的 DNA 含量，并直接与基因组 DNA 相互作用。结果表明，尽管这两种化合物的化学结构相似，但 QA 和 SA 对细胞功能的影响是可区分的。总之，本研究结果表明，SA 和 QA 可用作食品保鲜中的抗菌剂。
