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[Guest guest]

Hi Jennie,

don't know whether you know what's going on in town while you are abroad. Maybe

the article below

contains some cooking ideas for your Mr. Mom.

Bye

Torsten

J Food Prot 2001 Jul;64(7):1019-24

Related Articles, Books

Antimicrobial activity of essential oils from plants against selected pathogenic

and saprophytic

microorganisms.

Elgayyar M, Draughon FA, Golden DA, Mount JR.

Tennessee Agricultural Experiment Station, Department of Food Science and

Technology, Food Safety

Center, The University of Tennessee, Knoxville 37919, USA.

The beneficial health effects of extracts from many types of plants that are

used as seasoning

agents in foods and beverages have been claimed for centuries. The purpose of

this study was to

examine the effectiveness of selected herb and spice essential oils for control

of growth and

survival of microorganisms. Inhibition of growth was tested by the paper disc

agar diffusion method.

Antibiotic susceptibility discs were used as control. Minimum lethal

concentration (MLC) was

determined by the tube dilution method. Essential oils from anise, angelica,

basil, carrot, celery,

cardamom, coriander, dill weed, fennel, oregano, parsley, and rosemary were

evaluated. Inhibition

ranged from complete with oregano to no inhibition with carrot oil for each of

the test strains that

included: Listeria monocytogenes, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli

O:157:H7, Yersinia

enterocolitica, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Lactobacillus plantarum, Aspergillus

niger, Geotrichum, and

Rhodotorula. Oregano essential oil showed the greatest inhibition (zone, > or =

70 to 80 mm) (MLC,

approximately 8 ppm). Coriander and basil were also highly inhibitory (MLC,

approximately 25 to 50

ppm) to E. coli O:157:H7 and to the other bacteria and fungi tested. Anise oil

was not particularly

inhibitory to bacteria (inhibition zone, approximately 25 mm); however, anise

oil was highly

inhibitory to molds. Because some of the herbal and spice essential oils are

highly inhibitory to

selected pathogenic and spoilage microorganisms, they may provide alternatives

and supplements to

conventional antimicrobial additives in foods.

PMID: 11456186 [PubMed - in process]