Basil effective against lethal food bugs
|
Basil might one day become a weapon in the battle against dangerous food bugs.
|
THERE ARE a number of eco-friendly alternatives available to avoid the infestatation of pests and diseases in agricultural crops and food articles. Among these, botanicals are also important and have been found effective against a number of pests, fungi and bacteria.
Basil (Ocimum basilicum) is one of such important plants, the leaf extract of which was found to inhibit the growth of many fungi and bacteria. It might one day become a weapon in the battle against dangerous food bugs such as Escherichia coli and Listeria.
A new plastic food wrapper for meat and cheese, which slowly oozes anti-microbial chemicals extracted from the herb has been shown to increase the foods' shelf life and also cut down the risk of food poisoning. It does not taint the food with basil flavour either.
Preliminary tests on the new wrapping conducted at the Technion Institute of Technology of Haifa, Israel and Victoria University in Melbourne, Australia, indicate that it keeps bacteria at bay in cheese.
The plastic used in the packaging is laced with two chemicals extracted from basil: an ether called methyl chavicol and the alcohol linalool. These are both known to be active against eight types of bacteria including Escherci coli and listeria. Both organic molecules contain chemical groups that attack and destroy the cell wall.
To kill the bugs in the food, the methyl chavicol and linalool need to be able to evaporate from the wrapper. But it is hard to incorporate volatile chemicals into polymer fils, because the usual way to make such a material involves heating it and this would cause the chemicals to evaporate and be lost during manufacture.
To retain the anti-microbial chemicals in the film researchers from the above mentioned institutes made the wrapper from a mixture of polymers.
The idea is to design the polymer mix so that each anti-microbial molecule binds fast to the plastic while remaining able to defuse into the food. The wrapper would be most efficient if the volatile compounds diffused out of the polymer only towards the inside of the package and not outside.
In Japan, the herbal plants horseradish (Radicula armorcia) and wasabi (Wasabia japonica) have been incorporated into packaging because of their anti-microbial activity, but it was found to mix with the food.
The basil extracts are less soluble in water than wasabi and so do not adhere to the food as much.
Researchers claim that this basil laced anti-microbial film is likely to be attractive to consumers because the active chemicals come from a natural source and are therefore less likely to degrade into harmful by-products.
Essential oils from the leaves of basil have also been found effective against Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus versicolor which cause bio degradation in several stored food commodities.
Harendar Raj Gautam,
Y.S.Parmar University
of Horticulture and Forestry,
Nauni, Solan 173 230, H.P.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Sci Tech
