Abstract: Due to rapid growth of the food processing industry and the consumption of processed foods, the demand for natural antimicrobial agents is on the rise. Consumers have become more aware about the health effects of the synthetic preservatives used in food. Hence natural preservatives are developed to meet the demand of consumers. These natural antimicrobials are developed either from plants or their parts, animals or even micro organisms. Even the waste generated from the food industries is being considered as an alternative to produce natural antimicrobials. The aim of the present study was to utilize the waste generated from the citrus fruit processing (peel) industry. The essential oil was extracted from the peel by hydro distillation process and was checked further for antimicrobial activity against food borne pathogens like Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Shigella species and Candida albicans using agar disc diffusion assay .The essential oil from the citrus (orange, sweet lime and lemon) peel was found to show inhibitory effect against all the organisms tested and thus showed broad spectrum activity. Comparison between the inhibitory activities of 3 essential oils was carried out. Lemon peel oil was found to show the most inhibitory effect as compared to orange peel oil and sweet lime peel oil. The results suggest that citrus peel oil can be used as natural preservative over other synthetic preservatives to minimize the ill effects of these synthetic preservatives and protect consumer health.
Keywords: citrus peel oil, natural antimicrobial agent, food borne pathogens, citrus essential oil.
Title: Antimicrobial Activity of Citrus Sinensis (Orange), Citrus Limetta (Sweet Lime) and Citrus Limon (Lemon) Peel Oil on Selected Food Borne Pathogens
Author: Shalu Hasija, Geeta Ibrahim, Ashok Wadia
International Journal of Life Sciences Research
ISSN 2348-313X (Print), ISSN 2348-3148 (online)
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