Antimicrobial activities of therapeutic herbal plants against Listeria monocytogenes and the herbal plant cytotoxicity on Caco-2 cell.

摘要

Aims: This study investigated the antimicrobial effect of various therapeutic herbal plants on Listeria monocytogenes, and their cytotoxicity effect on mammalian cells. Methods and Results. The extracts from 69 therapeutic herbal plants were used to investigate the effect on the growth inhibition of L. monocytogenes, and their minimal inhibition concentrations and minimal bactericidal concentrations were determined. Among the plants, Psoraleae semen L. (Bogolji) and Sophorae radix L. (Gosam) extracts, which showed obvious antilisterial activity, were examined for the stability to heat, NaCl and acidic condition. Moreover, cytotoxicities of Bogolji and Gosam were tested, using Caco-2 cells. L. monocytogenes growth was completely inhibited by Bogolji and Gosam extracts at 3 2-6 3 and 50-100 AU ml--1, respectively, and heat, NaCl and acidic condition did not affect the antilisterial activity of Bogolji and Gosam. Cytotoxic activities were observed only at high concentration (50 AU ml--1) of Bogolji extract. Conclusion. Bogolji and Gosam could be considered as potential phytochemicals to control L. monocytogenes. Significance and Impact of the Study: Use of therapeutic herbal plants should be useful in controlling L. monocytogenes, because most consumers have better acceptance for phytochemicals than synthetic chemicals. copyright 2012 The Authors. Letters in Applied Microbiology copyright 2012 The Society for Applied Microbiology.