title: Essential Oils: Sources of Antimicrobials and Food Preservatives.
abstract: Aromatic and medicinal plants produce essential oils in the form of secondary metabolites. These essential oils can be used in diverse applications in food, perfume, and cosmetic industries. The use of essential oils as antimicrobials and food preservative agents is of concern because of several reported side effects of synthetic oils. Essential oils have the potential to be used as a food preservative for cereals, grains, pulses, fruits, and vegetables. In this review, we briefly describe the results in relevant literature and summarize the uses of essential oils with special emphasis on their antibacterial, bactericidal, antifungal, fungicidal, and food preservative properties. Essential oils have pronounced antimicrobial and food preservative properties because they consist of a variety of active constituents (e.g., terpenes, terpenoids, carotenoids, coumarins, curcumins) that have great significance in the food industry. Thus, the various properties of essential oils offer the possibility of using natural, safe, eco-friendly, cost-effective, renewable, and easily biodegradable antimicrobials for food commodity preservation in the near future.
authors.affiliation: Bacteriology and Natural Pesticide Laboratory, Department of Botany, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University Gorakhpur, India.
authors.forename: Abhay K
authors.initials: AK
authors.lastname: Pandey
authors.affiliation: Department of Forestry, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology Nirjuli, India.
authors.forename: Pradeep
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.affiliation: Bacteriology and Natural Pesticide Laboratory, Department of Botany, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University Gorakhpur, India.
authors.forename: Pooja
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Singh
authors.affiliation: Bacteriology and Natural Pesticide Laboratory, Department of Botany, Deen Dayal Upadhyay Gorakhpur University Gorakhpur, India.
authors.forename: Nijendra N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Tripathi
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology, School of Biotechnology, Yeungnam University Gyeongsan, South Korea.
authors.forename: Vivek K
authors.initials: VK
authors.lastname: Bajpai
keywords: antibacterial; antifungal; bioactivity; essential oils; food preservative properties