Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Andrea Bernardos Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Quality of Agricultural Products, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Lenka Kouřimská Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Quality of Agricultural Products, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Applications of mesoporous silica materials in food - a review Abstract: Mesoporous silica materials have been developed for some applications in the health field. These solids are used for the controlled release of bioactive molecules, as catalysts in the synthesis of essential nutrients, as sensors to detect unhealthy products etc., with many applications in food technologies. By combining mesoporous silica materials with food, we can create healthier products, the products that improve our quality of life. The development of mesoporous materials applied to food could result in protecting bioactive molecules during their passage though the digestive system. For this reason, the controlled release of bioactive molecules is a very interesting topic for the discipline of food technology. The use of mesoporous silica supports as catalysts in the synthesis of nutrients and as sensors for the detection of unhealthy products, essential in food, is in great demand industrially for the manufacture of functional foods and films for food and industrial packaging. This review shows some examples of silica materials and their applications in food. Keywords: bioactive molecules, healthier products, ordered solids Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 99-107 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/240/2012-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/240/2012-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0001.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:240-2012-CJFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Anna ŠIMONIOVÁ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Food Preservation, Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Bo-Anne ROHLÍK Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Food Preservation, Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Tereza ŠKORPILOVÁ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Food Preservation, Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Michaela PETROVÁ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Food Preservation, Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Petr PIPEK Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Food Preservation, Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology, Institute of Chemical Technology Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Differentiation between fresh and thawed chicken meats Abstract: Adulteration of fresh meat and its possible substitution with frozen and thawed meat represents a problem, since thawed meat has not only lower sensory qualities than fresh meat but also a lower price. Commercial enzymatic kits seem to be a solution to reveal such unfair practises and were applied to detect the activity of specific enzymes, citrate synthase, mitochondrial enzymes that are released from the organelles destroyed by frost. We determined, whether the meat of slaughtered chicken was fresh or frozen/thawed, and to provide convincing results. The absolute results vary with the type of meat and depend on the enzyme used. However, the enzyme activity in the exudates of frozen/thawed meat is always higher than in fresh meat. This value further increases with each subsequent freezing cycle. The determination of citrate synthase activity was done only in the exudate released from the examined meat samples. However, to determine the enzymes activity directly in unpacked meat, which have not released any exudate, is the subject of further research. Keywords: citrate synthase, meat, freezing, detection Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 108-115 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/127/2012-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/127/2012-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0002.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:127-2012-CJFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Stela Jokić Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Food Technology, University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek, Osijek, Croatia Author-Name: Rezica Sudar Author-Workplace-Name: Agricultural Institute Osijek, Croatia Author-Name: Sandra Svilović Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Chemistry and Technology, University of Split, Split, Croatia Author-Name: Senka Vidović Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Technology, University of Novi Sad, Novi Sad, Serbia$2 Author-Name: Mate Bilić Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Food Technology, University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek, Osijek, Croatia Author-Name: Darko Velić Author-Workplace-Name: Faculty of Food Technology, University of J. J. Strossmayer in Osijek, Osijek, Croatia Author-Name: Vlatka Jurković Author-Workplace-Name: Agricultural Institute Osijek, Croatia Title: Fatty acid composition of oil obtained from soybeans by extraction with supercritical carbon dioxide Abstract: Soybean oil fractions were obtained by collecting the extract at different time intervals during supercritical carbon dioxide extraction. The extraction was performed at the following temperatures: 313, 323, and 333 K, and at pressures of 300, 400, and 500 bar. The triacylglycerol composition and concentration of fatty acids in soybean oil fractions was evaluated. The fatty acid and triacylglycerol compositions of soybean oil obtained with supercritical carbon dioxide was compared with the soybean oil extracted with n-hexane. The extraction temperature and pressure, did not influence the fatty acids compositions which, however, differed in different fractions collected at different time intervals. The concentrations of myristic, palmitic, linoleic, and linolenic fatty acids of soybean oil were the highest in the first fraction and then decreased, while the concentrations of stearic and oleic acids showed the opposite trend. The solubility of all fatty acids increased with the pressure from 300 to 400 bar at constant temperature, while in the interval from 400 to 500 bar the solubility decreased with long chain fatty acids (C20-C24). Keywords: supercritical carbon dioxide extraction, fractions, soybean oil, triacylglycerols Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 116-125 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/8/2012-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/8/2012-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0003.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:8-2012-CJFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Alexey Proshlyakov Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Stavros Yanniotis Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Food Science and Technology, Agricultural University of Athens, Athene, Greece Author-Name: Jiří Blahovec Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Physics, Faculty of Engineering, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Title: Pistachio deterioration detected by X-ray absorption Abstract: The measurement of the absorption coefficient of X-rays in healthy and fungus infected pistachio kernels was the main objective of this work aimed at detecting the potential injury by insects and/or fungi in the kernel. It was found that the absorption coefficient in the injured parts is about half of that in the healthy parts. The absorption coefficient is also affected by the position in the kernel due to the variations in cell dimensions and the oil and moisture contents in the kernels. Keywords: X-ray image, aflatoxin detection, absorption coefficient, pistachio kernel Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 126-131 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/101/2012-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/101/2012-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0004.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:101-2012-CJFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Soner Çelen Author-Workplace-Name: Mechanical Engineering Department, Namik Kemal University, Çorlu/Tekirdag, Turkey Author-Name: Kamil Kahveci Author-Workplace-Name: Mechanical Engineering Department, Trakya University, Edirne, Turkey Title: Microwave drying behaviour of tomato slices Abstract: The microwave drying behaviour of tomato slices was investigated experimentally to determine the effects of microwave power on the drying rate, energy consumption, and dried product quality in terms of colour, and a theoretical model was proposed to define the drying curves of tomato slices. The experiments performed with the microwave power of 90, 180, 360, and 600 W indicate that the drying time and the energy consumption decreased considerably with an increase in microwave power. The experiments also revealed that the drying rate shows first an increase and then a decrease during drying, and that the colour quality of the product deteriorates significantly with the increase of the microwave power. A theoretical model was developed using the solution of energy equation considering the microwave power as an internal heat source. The electric field strength inside the material was assumed to be dependent on the moisture content and the constants emerging from this assumption were obtained by minimising the sum of squared differences between the theoretical results and experimental data obtained for various drying conditions. The results show that the values proposed for the constants provide a good agreement between the theoretical and experimental drying behaviour. Keywords: drying rate, diffusion moisture content, colour analysis Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 132-138 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/30/2012-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/30/2012-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0005.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:30-2012-CJFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Anton Slavov Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Organic Cchemistry and Author-Name: Vasil Karagyozov Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Canning Technology, Technological Faculty, University of Food Technologies, Plovdiv, Bulgaria, Author-Name: Petko Denev Author-Name: Maria Kratchanova Author-Name: Christo Kratchanov Title: Antioxidant activity of red beet juices obtained after microwave and thermal pretreatments Abstract: Pressed juices and water extracts from untreated, microwave pretreated, and thermally treated red beet were obtained. The highest total betalain content - 606.34 mg/100 g dry matter (DM) was found in pressed juice obtained after microwave pretreatment. The individual betalains in the pressed juice from untreated red beet were tentatively determined by HPLC. The most abundant betalain pigments were betanin (312.47 mg/100 g DM), vulgaxanthin I (104.08 mg/100 g DM), and isobetanin (71.28 mg/100 g DM). The antioxidant activity of the pressed juices and extracts was determined. The highest antioxidant activity - 10832.4 µmol ТЕ/l was found in the pressed juice obtained from microwave pretreated red beet. The possibility of obtaining mixed fruit-vegetable juices on the basis of red beet juice was investigated. Different variants of mixed beverages using chokeberry, blackberry, blueberry, and black currant were obtained in which the concentration of the red beet pressed juice was 25, 50, and 75%. Their polyphenol contents and antioxidant activity were determined. The highest antioxidant activity revealed mixed pressed juice from red beet and chokeberry. Keywords: betalains, Beta vulgaris L., ORAC, HORAC, fruit-vegetable juices Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 139-147 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/61/2012-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/61/2012-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0006.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:61-2012-CJFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Shun-Cheng Ren Author-Workplace-Name: School of Food Science and Technology, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, P.R. China, Author-Name: Qing-Qing Qiao Author-Workplace-Name: School of Food Science and Technology, Henan University of Technology, Zhengzhou, P.R. China, Author-Name: Xiao-Lin Ding Author-Workplace-Name: School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, P.R. China Title: Antioxidative activity of five flavones glycosides from corn silk (Stigma maydis) Abstract: Five flavones glycosides (i.e., 2''-O-α-l-rhamnosyl-6-C-3''deoxyglucosyl-3'-methoxyluteolin, ax-5'-methane-3'-methoxymaysin, ax-4''-OH-3'-methoxymaysin, 6,4'-dihydroxy-3'-methoxyflavone-7-O-glucoside, and 7,4'-dihydroxy-3'-methoxyflavone-2''-O-α-l-rhamnosyl-6-C-fucoside) were successfully isolated from corn silk and identified. We evaluated their antioxidant activity among in vitro assay systems. Most of the flavones glycosides showed a high antioxidant activity in a lecithin liposome system, as well as a strong scavenging activity against radicals such as 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH), superoxide, and hydroxyl radicals. The study indicated that the corn silk flavonoids, especially 6, 4'-dihydroxy- 3'-methoxyflavone-7-O-glucoside, may be beneficial natural food antioxidants. Keywords: flavonoids, antioxidant, radical scavenger Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 148-155 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/194/2012-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/194/2012-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0007.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:194-2012-CJFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Serap DOĞAN Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Biology Author-Name: Yasemin AYYILDIZ Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Biology Author-Name: Mehmet DOĞAN Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Literature, University of Balikesir, Çağiş-Balikesir, Turkey Author-Name: Ümran ALAN Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Biology Author-Name: Mehmet Emin DİKEN Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Biology Title: Characterisation of polyphenol oxidase from Melissa officinalis L. subsp. officinalis (lemon balm) Abstract: Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) from Melissa officinalis L. subsp. officinalis (lemon balm) was partially purified by ammonium sulphate precipitation and dialysis; and then it was characterised in detail in terms of pH and temperature optima, thermal stability, kinetic parameters, and inhibition properties. Based on experimental results, it was found out that (i) the optimum pH and temperature values of PPO were 6.5, 4.0, and 8.5 and 40, 50, and 60°C for catechol, 4-methylcatechol and pyrogallol substrates, respectively; (ii) the best substrate was pyrogallol due to the highest Vmax/Km value, followed by catechol and 4-methylcatechol; (iii) enzyme activity decreased due to heat denaturation of the enzyme with increasing temperature and inactivation time for all substrates; (vi) gallic acid and l-glutamic acid did not inhibit PPO; and (v) the most effective inhibitor was glutathione. Furthermore, the phenolic and protein contents of lemon balm extract were also determined according to the Folin-Ciocalteu and Bradford methods, respectively. Keywords: lemon balm, protein, enzyme kinetics, inhibition Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 156-165 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/288/2011-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/288/2011-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0008.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:288-2011-CJFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Rudolf Cejnar Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology and Author-Name: Oto Mestek Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Chemical Engineering, Institute of Chemical Technology Prague, Prague, Czech Republic Author-Name: Pavel Dostálek Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Food and Biochemical Technology and Title: Determination of silicon in Czech beer and its balance during the brewing process Abstract: Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used for the determination of silicon in beer samples from the Czech market and in brewing raw materials and semiproducts. The content of silicon in barley malt depended on the barley variety and growing region. The goal was to establish silicon concentration in Czech beer and to find out which processes are the most significant in terms of silicon concentration in beer. The silicon concentration in Czech beer ranged from 16 mg/l to 113 mg/l depending especially on two factors. Firstly, the silicon content in beer increased as the original wort concentration and increased secondly, during decoction mashing, silicon from malt was leached to a much greater extent than in the case of infusion mashing. Keywords: silicon, beer, wort, brewing, malt, hop, ICP-MS Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 166-171 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/65/2012-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/65/2012-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0009.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:65-2012-CJFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Lubomír Lampíř Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Prague-Suchdol, Czech Republic Title: Varietal differentiation of white wines on the basis of phenolic compounds profile Abstract: The authenticity of grapevine varieties is a very important topic in the Czech Republic, where varietal wines is very important for wine drinkers. The wines from 7 grapevine varieties were investigated. Sixteen phenolic compounds belonging among hydroxybenzoic and hydroxycinnamic acids, stilbenes, and flavan-3-ols were analysed by HPLC method. The aim of this study was to find markers of varietal origin of wines among the phenolic compounds studied. The analytical parameters obtained were evaluated for this purpose by CVA (canonical varietal analysis) method. It proved to be successful in detecting the following grapevine variety authenticity markers: hydroxycinnamic acids (i.e. p-coutaric acid and caftaric acid), hydroxybenzoic acids (protocatechuic acid and syringic acid), and flavan-3-ols ((-)-epicatechin and (+)-catechin). Keywords: authenticity, grapevine variety, HPLC, chemometric analysis, Vitis vinifera L Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 172-179 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/270/2012-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/270/2012-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0010.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:270-2012-CJFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Kateřina Kšicová Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Experimental Biology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic, 2Department of Milk Hygiene and Technology, Faculty of Veterinary Hygiene and Ecology, University of Veterinary and Pharmaceutical Sciences Brno, Brno, Czech Republic, 3Veterinary Research Institute, Brno, Czech Republic Author-Name: Marta Dušková Author-Name: Renáta Karpíšková Title: Differentiation of Lactobacillus species by ARDRA Abstract: The Lactobacillus species by 16S Amplified Ribosomal DNA Restriction Analysis (16S-ARDRA) was identified. Lactobacilli are bacteria often found in foodstuffs of both animal and vegetable origins. On one hand, they play an important role in the food spoilage and, on the other hand, they are used as starter cultures in food fermentation processes. The species-specific identification by traditional biochemical methods is time consuming and not always fully effective. Therefore, more efficient techniques are searched for. We focused on rapid identification of Lactobacillus isolates from different habitats. Forty-nine collection strains and isolates belonging to the genus Lactobacillus were discriminated. ARDRA was carried out with two restriction endonucleases. For the comparison of similarity, the Jaccard coefficient and clustering by the unweighted pair group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) were used. The percentages of similarity between profiles varied from 22% to 100% (AluI) and from 27% to 100% (MspI). This method proved applicable to the differentiation of 10 species. Keywords: restriction analysis of the 16S rDNA gene, AluI, MspI, in silico fragmentation, species identification Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 180-188 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/125/2012-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/125/2012-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0011.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:125-2012-CJFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Elizabeth Cudemos Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos, Facultad de Ciencias and Author-Name: Adriana Izquier Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos, Facultad de Ciencias and Author-Name: María S. Medina-Martínez Author-Workplace-Name: Cátedra de Microbiología de Alimentos, Facultad de Farmacia, Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas, Venezuela Author-Name: Vicente M. Gómez-López Author-Workplace-Name: Instituto de Ciencia y Tecnología de Alimentos, Facultad de Ciencias and Title: Effects of shading and growth phase on the microbial inactivation by pulsed light Abstract: Pulsed light is an emerging technology that kills microorganisms using pulses of an intense broad-spectrum light. This work aimed to determine the effect of population density and microbial growth phase on its microbicidal efficacy. To this, Pseudomonas fluorescens cultures were grown, diluted to different population densities, flashed, plated, incubated, and enumerated, Also, cultures of P. fluorescens, Bacillus cereus, and Saccharomyces cerevisiae were taken at different growth phases, diluted to the same population density, flashed, plated, incubated, and enumerated. Microbial inactivation was lower at high densities, probably as the consequence of the shading effect, and higher at the exponential phase. This study sets the background information useful for scientists and industrial implementation. The population density and growth phase must be taken into account in the planning experiments and comparing the literature. On the industrial scale, heavily contaminated solids are not suitable for pulsed light (PL) treatment; while liquids should receive several PL flashes under the flow conditions that assure that all microorganisms receive a PL treatment, that should be also designed in function of the growth phase of the microbial contaminant. Keywords: UV-C light, non-thermal methods, shading effect, decontamination, inactivation Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 189-193 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/145/2012-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/145/2012-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0012.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:145-2012-CJFS Template-Type: ReDIF-Article 1.0 Author-Name: Soumen Saha Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Botany, Cytogenetics and Plant Biotechnology Research Unit, University of Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Botany, Microbiology Research Unit, University of Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India Author-Name: Tarak Nath Dhar Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Botany, Microbiology Research Unit, University of Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India Author-Name: Chandan Sengupta Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Botany, Microbiology Research Unit, University of Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India Author-Name: Parthadeb Ghosh Author-Workplace-Name: Department of Botany, Cytogenetics and Plant Biotechnology Research Unit, University of Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India Title: Biological activities of essential oils and methanol extracts of five Ocimum species against pathogenic bacteria Abstract: The essential oils and methanol extracts of Ocimum basilicum L., Ocimum kilimandscharicum Guerke, Ocimum gratissimum L, Ocimum canum Sims, and Ocimum tenuiflorum L. (green type) were examined for their potential antibacterial activities. The chemical composition of essential oils of Ocimum species was analysed by GC-MS. The inhibitory effects of essential oils and methanol extracts were studied on two Gram-positive (Bacillus subtilis, Micrococcus luteus) and five Gram-negative (Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Shigella dysenteriae, Escherichia coli, Vibrio cholera, and Shigella flexneri) bacteria using disc-diffusion method. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was assessed by micro broth dilution method. The antibacterial test results showed that the essential oils of Ocimum basilicum L., Ocimum kilimandscharicum Guerke, and Ocimum gratissimum L. strongly inhibited the growth of all of the microorganisms studied, especially of the Gram-negative strains, whereas other two essential oils showed moderate activities. The result may suggest that the essential oils of Ocimum possess compounds with antibacterial activities, and therefore could be used as natural preservative ingredients in food and/or pharmaceutical industries. Keywords: antibacterial activity, essential oil, GC-MS, Ocimum species Journal: Czech Journal of Food Sciences Pages: 195-202 Volume: 31 Issue: 2 Year: 2013 DOI: 10.17221/234/2012-CJFS File-URL: http://cjfs.agriculturejournals.cz/doi/10.17221/234/2012-CJFS.html File-Format: text/html X-File-Ref: http://agriculturejournals.cz/RePEc/caa/references/cjf-201302-0013.txt Handle: RePEc:caa:jnlcjf:v:31:y:2013:i:2:id:234-2012-CJFS