With Salmonella in the news and natural products on the rise, research into natural microbial agents is a timely topic. To that end, Canadian and Korean scientists jointly studied the antimicrobial activity of mustard essential oil against Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella Typhi.
The study set out to investigate how mustard essential oil affected the cell membranes of E. coli O157:H7 and S. typhi. They measured the microbes’ intracellular pH and ATP concentration and the release of cell constituents when using the mustard essential oil at its minimum inhibitory concentration and maximum tolerated concentration. This changed the bacteria’s membrane integrity and decreased the intracellular ATP concentration, which in turn reduced the intracellular pH in both bacteria. This resulted in a significantly higher release of cell constituents, apparently due to damage by the mustard essential oil. Researchers concluded that because mustard essential oil affected the cell membrane integrity, resulting in a loss of cell homeostasis, it can work as an effective antimicrobial agent.
