Chemical constituents, antibacterial activity and mechanism of action of the essential oil from Cinnamomum cassia bark against four food-related bacteria
- Resource Type
- Original Paper
- Authors
- Huang, D. F.; Xu, J. -G.; Liu, J. -X.; Zhang, H.; Hu, Q. P.
- Source
- Microbiology. July 2014 83(4):357-365
- Subject
- Cinnamomum cassia bark
antibacterial activity
essential oil
mechanism of action
food-related bacteria
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 0026-2617
1608-3237
The majority of components of the essential oil from Cinnamomum cassia bark were identified by gas chromatography and mass spectrometry (GC-MS) in this study. The trans-cinnamaldehyde (68.52%) was found to be the major compound. The antibacterial activity of essential oil against four food-related bacteria was evaluated. The results showed it was stronger effect against Staphylococcus aureus with both the largest ZOI of 27.4 mm and the lowest minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of 2.5 mg/mL and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of 5.0 mg/mL respectively. Postcontact effect (PCE) assay also confirmed the essential oil had a significant effect on the growth rate of surviving S. aureus and Escherichia coli. The mechanism against S. aureus and E. coli may be due to the increase in permeability of cell membranes, and the leakage of intracellular constituents based on cell permeability assay and electron microscopy observations.