Food ingredients as natural anti-microbial agents

Many natural food ingredients have anti-microbial activity and a potential role in food preservation. With increased interest in the use of natural preservatives, there is growing interest in trying to realise this potential.

This review describes a wide range of ingredients which are known to contain natural anti-microbial chemicals. It describes the ingredient itself and comments on the nature of the anti-microbial component. It also describes the effects of the food matrix on the efficacy of the anti-microbial and discusses the potential for the use of natural anti-microbials with other food preservatives. The review contains extensive references to the scientific and wider literature on the subject.

Contents

• Introduction
• Plant extracts:
  Garlic; onion; cloves; cinnamon; thyme; black and white pepper; capsicum; oregano; rosemary; allspice; basil; aniseed; fennel; caraway; nutmeg; sage; bay; corriander; turmeric; ginger; mint; eucalyptus; vanilla; mustard and horseradish.
• Citrus fruits:
  Orange; mandarin; lemon; lime; grapefruit seed extract.
• Other food ingredients:
  Cocoa; tea; coffee; honey; legume extracts; radish; tomato.
• Effect of natural anti-microbials in food
• Effect of natural anti-microbials in combination with other food preservatives
• Conclusions
• References