Abstract
The topic of this chapter is the antibacterial activity of Mentha against several pathogenic bacteria. Some aromatic plants are recently being studied for their antibacterial properties, such as citrus essential oils, Armoracia rusticana, etc., showing inhibition against bacteria, fungi and yeasts. This chapter highlights the antibacterial characteristics of Mentha piperita (peppermint) and other Mentha sp. that are used daily as folk remedies and in food industry too. Mentha acts as counterirritant and analgesic with the ability to reduce pain and improve blood flow to the affected area. For these reasons, mint essential oils are well studied due to their antibacterial activities against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive ones and can be useful as a substitute to some antibiotics and combat the antimicrobial bacterial resistance.
Keywords
- Mentha sp.
- antibacterial activity
- plants
- leaf extract
- essential oils
1. Introduction
The essential oils (EOs) are a group of several natural chemicals that are characterised by their volatility and aroma [1].
The essential oils are produced by different plant parts (flowers, buds, seeds, leaves, twigs, bark, herbs, wood, fruits and roots) as secondary metabolites [2]. The EOs are about 3000, 300 of which are used for pharmaceutical, agronomic, food, sanitary, cosmetic and perfusion purposes [2]. They are a complex of natural mixtures of lipophilic substances and consist of two fractions: volatile (from 85 to 99%) and non-volatile, the second one being a heavier fraction than the first one (from 1 to 15%) [3]. Hydrocarbon compounds and oxygenated compounds prevail in the volatile fraction of EOs. The oxygenated fraction gives the characteristic flavour to the essences, while terpenes and sesquiterpenes perform a support function. The separation process of terpenes, as well as improving the stability of the essence, allows to concentrate the oxygenate fraction that it brings a superior contribution to perfume and aroma. The non-volatile fraction consists of many classes of substances such as high molecular weight hydrocarbons, fatty acids, steroids, carotenoids, waxes, coumarins, psoralenes and flavonoids [2]. Several EOs extracted from plants contain compounds that are responsible for their antimicrobial effects [4, 5, 6]. The mechanisms by which different EOs are capable of damaging bacteria depend on their composition. Generally, antimicrobial activity is derived not only from a single mechanism of action but also from a cascade of reactions that involve the entire bacterial cell because EOs have several chemical structures in their composition and, consequently, several functional groups. In general, Gram-positive bacteria are more susceptible to the effects of EOs than Gram-negative bacteria, due to significant structural differences in the cell wall of these two groups of bacteria [7, 8]. The structure of Gram-positive bacteria facilitates the penetration of hydrophobic molecules into the cell and acts on the bacterial wall, cytoplasmic membrane or cytoplasm [1].
The diseases caused by bacterial pathogens are a great concern all over the world [9]. Since the beginning of the 1980s, it is observed that the number of antimicrobial agents decreased considerably, while the resistance of the microorganisms to them has been growing in a fast way due to the development of new resistance mechanisms [10].
For these reasons, nowadays, there has been a growing interest in the determination of the biological and antimicrobial properties of herb extracts derived from several medicinal plants [11]. Among the species of plants from which essential oils are obtained, there is mint (
2. Chemical composition of Mentha species essential oil
The essential oils from different
The composition of MEOs that gives the characteristic peppermint aroma and flavour is menthol and pulegone [27], whereas for spearmint, it was reported that the flavour is due to carvone [28].
Several investigations have been carried out on the chemical composition of different samples of
3. Methods for testing the antibacterial activity of essential oils
The methods used for testing antimicrobial activity of EOs are the disc diffusion method, the determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the vapour phase method. Another method is the use of TLC-bioautography.
3.1 Agar diffusion test
In the agar diffusion test, the EO to be tested is placed on the top of an agar surface. There are two techniques: in the first one, the essential oil is adsorbed onto a sterile paper disk; in the second one, the EO is put inside a hole into the agar surface. Then, the agar plates are incubated according to the physiological characteristics of the tested bacteria. The antimicrobial agent tested by spreading in the medium inhibits bacterial growth, thereby creating halos of inhibition around the bacterial colonies; the size of inhibition zone is regarded as a measure for the antimicrobial potency of an essential oil [40]. But some lipophilic compounds such as farnesol, although the compound results in a strong inhibition in the serial dilution test [41], cause only small inhibition zones, i.e. against
3.2 Dilution test
In the dilution test, the essential oil to be tested is incorporated in a semisolid agar medium or liquid broth in several defined amounts. The absence of growth in agar plates or test tubes is determined with the naked eye after incubation. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) is the concentration of essential oil present in the ungrown agar plate or test tube with the highest amount of test material. When essential oils are tested, the main difficulty is caused by their low water solubility. The addition of solvents (e.g. dimethylsulfoxide and ethanol) or detergents (e.g. Tween 20) to the growth medium is unavoidable, which however influences the MIC [44, 45, 46]. Another problem is the volatilisation of essential oils during incubation. Furthermore, MIC-influencing test parameters are the size of inoculum, the pH of growth medium and the incubation time. Nevertheless, the serial dilution test in liquid broth was recommended for natural substances [47] and is standardised for the testing of antibacterial and antifungal drugs in liquid broth and agar plates [48]. Its use enables a link to data of pharmaceutical drugs and an easier interpretation of test results. All concentrations are recalculated in μg/ml [1, 49].
3.3 Vapour phase test
The components of EOs and their relative volatilities determine the characteristics of their vapours, which in turn affect the antimicrobial potential [50, 51]. For this test, a standardised method for testing the antimicrobial activity of essential oils does not exist. Recently, several studies confirmed that vapour phases of EOs are more effective antimicrobials than their liquid phases [51, 52, 53] probably because the lipophilic molecules in the aqueous phase associate to form micelles and thus suppress the attachment of the EOs to the organism, whereas the vapour phase allows free attachment [54].
3.4 TLC bioautography
Direct bioautography combined with thin layer chromatographic (TLC) separation is a rapid and sensitive screening method for the detection of antimicrobial compounds. Test microorganism cultures are capable of growing directly on the TLC plate, so each step of the assay is performed on the sorbent. Similar to the common antimicrobial screening methods, TLC bioautography must be carried out under controlled conditions, since the experimental conditions (e.g. solvent, sample application, resolution of compounds, type of microorganism and incubation time) may influence the result [55]. The advantages of direct bioautography are that it is suitable for evaluating complex plant extracts and facilitates rapid, economic and easy evaluation. The use of bioautography to detect antimicrobial compounds effective against plant and human pathogenic bacteria has been reported in the literature [56, 57].
4. Uses of mint essential oils
The mint species has always been widely used; the leaves, flowers, and stems of
5. Conclusion
MEOs have antibacterial effects against a wide range of pathogenic microorganisms in humans, fish, and vegetables also. MEOs’ antibacterial activity is linked to their chemical composition rich in pulegone, menthone, menthol, carvone, 1, 8-cineole, limonene and b-caryophyllene and phenolic compounds also such as α-pinene, citronellol and methyl eugenol. For these reasons, MEOs are widely used as food additives and in pharmaceutical industries to prevent microbial spoilage of foods. The most used methods to test the antimicrobial activity of EOs are the disc diffusion method, the determination of minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), and the vapour phase method, and to have the most truthful analysis possible on the antibacterial characteristics, it is better to use more than one method. The use of MEOs, and in general of EOs, is very important because being natural substances and therefore easily biodegradable, it could be a promising alternative to synthetic materials to fight the increasingly common bacterial infections.
References
- 1.
Horváth P, Koščová J. In vitro antibacterial activity ofMentha essential oils againstStaphylococcus aureus . Folia Veterinaria. 2017;61 :71-77. DOI: 10.1515/fv-2017-0030 - 2.
Palazzolo E, Laudicina VA, Germanà MA. Current and potential use of citrus essential oils. Current Organic Chemistry. 2013; 17 :3042-3049 - 3.
Dugo P, Ragonese C, Russo M, Sciarrone D, Santi L, Cotroneo A, et al. Sicilian lemon oil: Composition of volatile and oxygen heterocyclic fractions and enantiomeric distribution of volatile components. Journal of Separation Science. 2010; 33 :3374-3385 - 4.
Cosentino S, Tuberoso CIC, Pisano B, Satta M, Mascia V, Arzedi E, et al. In vitro antimicrobial activity and chemical composition of SardinianThymus essential oils. Letters in Applied Microbiology. 2002;29 :130-135 - 5.
Ozogul Y, Kuley E, Ucar Y, Ozogul F. Antimicrobial impacts of essential oils on food borne-pathogens. Recent Patents on Food, Nutrition & Agriculture. 2015; 7 (1):53-61 - 6.
Singh P, Pandey AK. Prospective of essential oils of the genus Mentha as biopesticides: A review. Frontiers in Plant Science. 2018;9 :1295. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2018.01295 - 7.
Cunha JA, Heinzman BM, Baldisserotto B. The effects of essential oils and their major compounds on fish bacterial pathogens—A review. Journal of Applied Microbiology. 2018; 125 :328-344 - 8.
Mancuso M, Catalfamo M, Laganà P, Rappazzo AC, Raymo V, Zampino D, et al. Screening of antimicrobial activity of citrus essential oils against pathogenic bacteria and Candida strains. Flavour and Fragrance Journal. 2019;34 (3):187-200. DOI: 10.1002/ffj.3491 - 9.
Bokhari N, Perveen K, Al Khulaifi M, Kumar A, Siddiqui I. In Vitro antibacterial activity and chemical composition of essential oil ofMentha arvensis Linn. leaves. TEOP. 2016;19 :907-915 - 10.
Fair RJ, Yitzhak T. Antibiotics and bacterial resistance in the 21st century. Perspectives in Medicinal Chemistry. 2014; 6 :25-64. DOI: 10.4137/PMC.S14459 - 11.
Aycan M, Yildiz M, Darcin S, Tunc K, Hos A, Dundar E. Antibacterial Activity of Mentha pulegium L. from Turkey. American Journal of Life Sciences. 2015;3 :383-386. DOI: 10.11648/j.ajls.20150306.11 - 12.
Mahalakshmi Prya A, Manikandan M, Kalaiselvi G, Arun P, Chinnaswamy P, Selvam K. Screening on antibacterial activity of Menta piperita L. Asian Journal of Microbiology, Biotechnology & Environmental Sciences. 2007;4 :1049-1052 - 13.
Hiruma CA. Estudo químico e farmacológico do óleo essencial das folhas de Mentha x villosa Hudson [doctoral thesis]. Universidade Federal da Paraíba; 1993 - 14.
Monte FJQ , Oliveira EF, Braz-Filho R. Triterpenóides pentacíclicos de Mentha x villosa : identificação estrutural e atribuição dos deslocamentos químicos dos átomos de hidrogênio e carbono. Quim Nova. 2001;24 :491-500 - 15.
Gobert V, Moja S, Colson M, Taberlet P. Hybridization in the section Mentha (Lamiaceae) inferred from AFLP markers. American Journal of Botany. 2002;89 :2017-2023 - 16.
Lorenzo D, Paz D, Dellacassa E, Davies P, Vila R, Cañigueral S. Essential oils of Mentha pulegium andMentha rotundifolia from Uruguay. Brazilian Archives of Biology and Technology. 2002;45 :519-524 - 17.
Marchese JA, Broetto F, Ming LC, Goto R, Stefanini MB, Galina A, et al. Perfil dos consumidores de plantas medicinais e condimentares do município de Pato Branco (PR). Horticultura Brasileira. 2005; 22 :332-342 - 18.
Sartoratto A, Machado ALM, Delarmelina C, Figueira GM, Duarte MCT, Rehder VL. Composition and antimicrobial activity of essential oils from aromatic plants used in Brazil. Brazilian Journal of Mricobiology. 2004; 35 :275-280 - 19.
Bertini LM, Pereira AF, Oliveira CLL, Menezes EA, Morais SM, Cunha FA, et al. Perfil de sensibilidade de bactérias frente a óleos essenciais de algumas plantas do nordeste do Brasil. Infarma. 2005; 17 :80-83 - 20.
Bieski IG. Plantas medicinais e aromáticas no sistema único de saúde da região sul de Cuiabá-MT. Monografia . MG: Universidade Federal de Lavras; 2005. p. 92 - 21.
Ullah N, Khurram M, Amin MU, Khan TA, Khayyam SU, Khan FA, et al. Impact of geographical locations on Mentha spicata antibacterial activities. Journal of Medicinal Plant Research. 2012;6 :1201-1206 - 22.
Snoussi M, Noumi E, Trabelsi N, Flamini G, Papetti A, De Feo V. Mentha spicata essential oil: Chemical composition, antioxidant and antibacterial activities against planktonic and biofilm cultures ofVibrio spp. strains. Molecules. 2015;20 :14402-14424. DOI: 10.3390/molecules200814402 - 23.
Heydari F, Saeedi S, Hassanshahian M. Antibacterial activity of Mentha longifolia againstSalmonella typhimurium . Advanced Herbal Medicine. 2015;1 :42-47 - 24.
Moghtader Y, Hadi-Khayatnouri N, Abbasi-Maleki S, Moradi-Kor N. Comparison of antibacterial activity of the hydroalcoholic and essential oil of Mentha pileglum in vitro condition. In: 1st International Conference on Medicine, Public Health and Biological Sciences (MPHBS). 2016 - 25.
Sariri R, Razmgar R, Taheri M, Shaigan Z. The synergic antibacterial effect of green tea and Mentha pegium extracts. Clinical Biochemistry. 2011;44 :S230 - 26.
Taherpour AA, Khaef S, Yari A, Nikeafshar S, Fathi M, Ghambar S. Chemical composition analysis of the essential oil of Mentha piperita L. from Kermanshah, Iran by hydrodistillation and HS/SPME methods. Journal of Analytical Science and Technology. 2017;8 (11):1-6. DOI: 10.1186/s40543-017-0122-0 - 27.
Lubbe A, Verpoorte R. Cultivation of medicinal and aromatic plants for specialty industrial materials. Industrial Crops and Products. 2011; 34 :785-801. DOI: 10.1016/j.indcrop.2011.01.019 - 28.
Hussain AI, Anwar F, Nigam P, Ashraf M, Gilani A. Seasonal variation in content, chemical composition and antimicrobial and cytotoxic activities of essential oils from four Mentha species. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture. 2010;90 :1827-1836. DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.4021 - 29.
Rohloff J, Dragland S, Mordal R, Iversen T. Effect of harvest time and drying method on biomass production, essential oil yield, and quality of peppermint ( Mentha × piperita L.). Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2005;53 :4143-4148. DOI: 10.1021/jf047998s - 30.
Figueiredo AC, Barroso JG, Pedro LG, Scheffer JC. Factors affecting secondary metabolite production in plants: Volatile components and essential oils. Flavour and Fragrance Journal. 2008; 23 :213-226. DOI: 10.1002/ffj.1875 - 31.
Soković MD, Vukojević J, Marin PD, Brkić DD, Vajs V, Van Griensven LJ. Chemical composition of essential oils of Thymus andMentha species and their antifungal activities. Molecules. 2009;14 (1):238-249 - 32.
Saeed K, Pasha I, Bukhari H, Butt MS, Iftikhar T, Shujah-UdDin U. Compositional profiling of Mentha piperita . Pakistan Journal of Food Sciences. 2014;24 (3):151-156 - 33.
Alankar S. A review on peppermint oil. Asian Journal of Pharmaceutical and Clinical Research. 2009; 2 (2):27-33 - 34.
Behnam S, Farzaneh M, Ahmadzadeh M, Tehrani AS. Composition and antifungal activity of essential oils of Mentha piperita andLavendula angustifolia on post-harvest phytopathogens. Communications in Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences. 2005;71 (3 Pt B):1321-1326 - 35.
Başer K, Kürkçüoğlu M, Demirci B, Özek T, Tarımcılar G. Essential oils of Mentha species from Marmara region of Turkey. Journal of Essential Oil Research. 2012;24 (3):265-272 - 36.
Yasukawa K, Yamaguchi A, Arita J, Sakurai S, Ikeda A, Takido M. Inhibitory effect of edible plant extracts on 12-otetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate-induced ear oedema in mice. Phytotherapy Research. 1993; 7 (2):185-189 - 37.
Chouhan S, Sharma K, Guleria S. Antimicrobial activity of some essential oils—Present status and future perspectives. Medicines (Basel). 2017; 4 (3):58. DOI: 10.3390/medicines4030058 - 38.
Singh P, Pandey AK. Prospective of essential oils of the genus Mentha as biopesticides: A review. Frontiers in Plant Science. 2018;9 :1295. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2018.01295 - 39.
Ultee A, Bennik M, Moezelaar R. The phenolic hydroxyl group of carvacrol is essential for action against the foodborne pathogen Bacillus cereus . Applied and Environmental Microbiology. 2002;68 (4):1561-1568 - 40.
Balouiri M, Sadiki M, Ibnsouda SK. Methods for in vitro evaluating antimicrobial activity: A review. Journal of Pharmaceutical Analysis. 2016; 6 :71-79 - 41.
Kubo I, Muroi H, Kubo A. Antibacterial activity of long chain alcohols against Streptococcus mutans . Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 1983;41 :2447-2450 - 42.
Weis N. Zur Wirkweise von Terpenoiden auf den Energiestoffwechsel von Bakterien: Wirkung auf respiratorischen Elektronentransport und oxidative Phoshorylierung [dissertation]. Erlangen: Friedrich-Alexander Universitat; 1986 - 43.
Budzyńska A, Wieckowska-Szakiel M, Kalemba D, Sadowska B, Rózalska B. The optimization of methods utilized for testing the antibacterial activity of essential oils. Medycyna Doświadczalna i Mikrobiologia. 2009; 61 (3):281-287 - 44.
Remmal A, Bouchikhi B, Rhayour K, et al. Improved method for the determination of antimicrobial activity of essential oils in agar medium. Journal of Essential Oil Research. 1993; 5 :179-184 - 45.
Hili P, Evans CS, Veness RG. Antimicrobial action of essential oils: The effect of dimethylsulphoxide on the activity of cinnamon oil. Letters in Applied Microbiology. 1997; 24 :269-275 - 46.
Hammer KA, Carson CF, Riley TV. Influence of organic matter, cations and surfactants on the antimicrobial activity of Melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree) oil in vitro. Journal of Applied Microbiology. 1999;86 :446-452 - 47.
Pauli A. Identification strategy of mechanism-based lipophilic antimicrobials. In: Zhu P, editor. New Biocides Development: The Combined Approach of Chemistry and Microbiology (ACS Symposium Series). Corby: Oxford University Press; 2017. pp. 213-268 - 48.
Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. CAP Laboratory Accreditation Program Inspection Checklist. MIC–Microbiology; 2008 - 49.
Zaidi S, Dahiya P. In vitro antimicrobial activity, phytochemical analysis and total phenolic content of essential oil fromMentha spicata andMentha piperita . International Food Research Journal. 2015;22 :2440-2445 - 50.
Burt S. Essential oils: Their antibacterial properties and potential applications in food—A review. International Journal of Food Microbiology. 2006; 94 :223-253 - 51.
Tullio V, Nostro A, Mandras N, Dugo P, Banche G, Cannatelli MA, et al. Antifungal activity of essential oils against filamentous fungi determined by broth microdilution and vapour contact methods. Journal of Applied Microbiology. 2007; 102 :1544-1550 - 52.
Tyagi AK, Malik A. Antimicrobial action of essential oil vapours and negative air ions against Pseudomonas fluorescens . International Journal of Food Microbiology. 2010;143 :205-210 - 53.
Mondello F, Girolamo A, Scaturro M, Ricci ML. Determination of Legionella pneumophila susceptibility toMelaleuca alternifolia Cheel (tea tree) oil by an improved broth micro-dilution method under vapour controlled conditions. Journal of Microbiological Methods. 2009;77 :243-248 - 54.
Inouye S, Abe S, Yamaguchi H, Asakura M. Comparative study of antimicrobial and cytotoxic effects of selected essential oils by gaseous and solution contacts. International Journal of Aromatherapy. 2003; 13 :33-41 - 55.
Botz L, Nagy L, Kocsis B. Detection of microbiologically active compounds. In: Nyiredy SZ, editor. Planar Chromatography, A Retrospective View for the Third Millennium. Budapest: Springer; 2001. pp. 489-516 - 56.
Horváth G, Botz L, Kocsis B, Lemberkovics E, Szabó LG. Antimicrobial natural products and antibiotics detected by direct bioautography using plant pathogenic bacteria. Acta Botanica Hungarica. 2004; 46 :153 - 57.
Quiroga EN, Sampietro DA, Sgariglia MA, Soberón JR, Vattuone MA. Antimycotic activity of 5’-prenylisoflavanones of the plant Geoffroea Decorticans , against Aspergillus species. International Journal of Food Microbiology. 2009;132 :42 - 58.
Moreno L, Bello R, Primo-Yufera E. Pharmacological properties of the methanol extract from Mentha uaveolens Ehrh . Phytotherapy Research. 2002;16 :10-13 - 59.
Iscan G, Kirimer N, Kurkcuoglu M, Baser KHC. Antimicrobial screening of Mentha piperita essential oils. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. 2002;50 (14):3943-3946 - 60.
Elsabee MZ, Abdou ES. Chitosan based edible films and coatings: A review. Materials Science and Engineering. 2013; 33 :1819-1841 - 61.
Peng Y, Li Y. Combined effects of two kinds of essential oils on physical, mechanical and structural properties of chitosan films. Food Hydrocolloids. 2014; 36 :287-293 - 62.
Akhter R, Masoodi FA, Wani TA, Rather SA. Functional characterization of biopolymer based composite film: Incorporation of natural essential oils and antimicrobial agents. International Journal of Biological Macromolecules. 2019; 137 :1245-1255 - 63.
Scartazzini L, Tosati JV, Cortez DHC, Rossi MJ, Flôres SH, Hubinger MD, et al. Gelatin edible coatings with mint essential oil ( Mentha arvensis ): Film characterization and antifungal properties. Journal of Food Science and Technology. 2019;56 (9):4045-4056. DOI: 10.1007/s13197-019-03873-9 - 64.
Githaiga BM, Gathuru EM, Waithaka PN, Omondi GO. Antifungal effects of essential oils from mint and rosemary on peronospora destructor and Candida albicans . Mediterranean Journal of Basic and Applied Sciences. 2018;2 (4):05-12 - 65.
Aydın B, Barbas LAL. Sedative and anesthetic properties of essential oils and their active compounds in fish: A review. Aquaculture. 2020; 520 :734999