Essential oils and bacteria

Article Review

Using Melaleuca alternifolia (Tea tree oil) is effective against staphylococcus aureus. Mentha × piperita (Peppermint oil) has effective antibacterial properties, or prevents the spread of the bacteria against bacillus cereus. staphylococcus aureus and bacillus aureus are both bacterias. Melaleuca alternifolia(Tea tree oil) and Mentha × piperita(Peppermint oil) are essential oils and can be used for different purposes. These oils are effective against foodborne pathogens. Food borne pathogens can be bacteria, viruses, parasites, chemicals, and other agents. Peppermint oil and tea tree oil, will have an antibacterial effect on these pathogens and can reduce foodborne illnesses.

Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most foodborne pathogenic bacteria. It can be located in air, water, and food. (Liu et al.2020). Staphylococcus has about 50 species and is known as a highly resistant bacteria. Also known as “queen of resistance.” (BOSIOC et al. 2020). Bacillus cereus can be found in soil, plants, and air. It can also be found in insect and human gut microbiomes. (Premkrishnan et al. 2021). Bacillus Gram is positive and has a small-rod shape.(Premkrishnan et al. 2021). Both of these bacterias are very pathogenic and can be lethal to humans. Staphylococcus aureus can cause serious infections, staph infections are not serious most of the time but that doesn’t mean they can be. Bacillus cereus can also cause serious infections and comes from the spoilage, contamination, and can appear in raw and processed foods.

Tea tree oil comes from an Australian native plant called Melaleuca alternifolia. This oil has been used for a long time in Australia. (Hammer et al. 2008). Tea tree is used worldwide and used commonly as a topical treatment antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory agent. Tea tree oil is most commonly known to treat acne, fungus, and even bites from insects. (Hammer et al. 2008). Peppermint oil is considered an aromatic oil. Peppermint oil possesses monoterpene compounds. It also has L-menthol. (Alammar et al. 2019). Peppermint oil is commonly used as a topical relief suchs as itching from allergic reactions and headaches. It can be even used to treat irritable bowel syndrome.

There is research shown that tea tree oil can percent the spread of Staphylococcus aureus, which were added to the wells of a 96-well plate and incubated for 24h at 378C to form mature biofilms.(Liu et al, 2020). Bacterial suspensions without the essential oils were used as positive controls, and wells with no essential oils and without the bacterial suspensions were the blank controls. The level of live bacteria was determined with a tetrazolium bromide (MTT) assay after treatment (33). (Liu et al, 2020). Tea tree essential oil against S. aureus biofilm was 82.07 and 83.49%. The essential oils had the same concentrations, tea tree oil had a big difference on the inhibitory effect on the S. aureus. (Liu et al, 2020). Tea tree oil made Staphylococcus aureus very sensitive. (Bosioc et al, 2020). Tea tree oil made a difference in the spread and reduction of Staphylococcus aureus.

Bacillus cereus can be found in feces or vomit in humans. (Alammar, 2019). Peppermint oil has antibacterial properties with pathogens in food. Bacillus cereus is one of those pathogens and peppermint oil can be used to treat pathogens in our packaged food. (Alammar, 2019). Bacillus cereus is a food borne pathogen and if this bacteria is found in food. The bacteria can be harmful to humans and it is toxic. (Alammar, 2019). The bactericidal properties of the peppermint oil were confirmed by Rusenova and Parvanov [34]; diameters of growth inhibition zones measured for Bacillus licheniformis reached 18 and 27.4 mm, respectively. (Berthold-Pluta et al, 2019). The peppermint oil resistance was measured and it did help with the reduction of the bacteria, this can be a way to help reduce bacteria growth by

Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus are both bacterias that are foodborne pathogens (Silva et al, 2013). Main cause of food poisoning is bacteria which is infectious and toxic to humans.( Dawoud et al, 2020). Bacillus cereus can cause diarrhea and vomiting. Bacillus cereus is more common in food than Staphylococcus aureus. Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus can be found in humans. (Premkrishnan et al, 2021). Both of these bacterias are in common foods that are eaten every day such as meat, rice, milk, and fish. A lot of common foodborne illnesses are Norovirus, Salmonella, Clostridium perfringens, Campylobacter, E. coli, Listeria.

Mentha × piperita (Peppermint oil) and (Tea tree oil) can both be useful for food borne pathogens. These pathogens are harmful if they are consumed and will cause humans illnesses. These essential oils are a natural way to keep us safe and get rid of staphylococcus aureus and bacillus cereus.

Reference

Alammar, N., Wang, L., Saberi, B., Nanavati, J., Holtmann, G., Shinohara, R. T., & Mullin, G. E. (2019). The impact of peppermint oil on the irritable bowel syndrome: A meta-analysis of the pooled clinical data. BMC Complementary and Alternative Medicine, 19 doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1186/s12906-018-2409-0

This article discusses peppermint oil and how bacillus cereus can cause irritable bowel syndrome(IBS). They demonstrate that peppermint oil can be used as an alleviation for IBS since bacillus cereus can cause IBS. I found this article to be useful because most of what was experimented was bacillus cereus and the use of peppermint oil. It does not discuss tea tree oil or bacillus. It also does not discuss the antibacterial film or properties of the oils. This article was about a clinical experiment to test what would be effective for people that have IBS.

Berthold-Pluta, A., Stasiak-Różańska, L., Pluta, A., & Garbowska, M. (2019). Antibacterial activities of plant-derived compounds and essential oils against 0RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2cronobacter1RW1S34RfeSDcfkexd09rT2 strains. European Food Research and Technology = Zeitschrift Für Lebensmittel-Untersuchung Und -Forschung.A, 245(5), 1137-1147. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1007/s00217-018-3218-x

This journal article discusses essential oils and where they are from and what they can be used for. The essential oils were tested on food bacteria and how using essential oils can reduce bacteria in food that we eat. I found this article to be useful because essential oils were tested for antibacterial activities against food. Peppermint oils was one of the tested oils to see how effective its properties are. This article did not discuss tea tree oil, staphylococcus aureus or bacillus cereus.

Crandall, H., Kapusta, A., Killpack, J., Heyrend, C., Nilsson, K., Dickey, M., Daly, J. A., Ampofo, K., Pavia, A. T., Mulvey, M. A., Yandell, M., Hulten, K. G., & Blaschke, A. J. (2020). Clinical and molecular epidemiology of invasive Staphylococcus aureus infection in Utah children; continued dominance of MSSA over MRSA. PLoS ONE, 15(9), 1–14. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1371/journal.pone.023 8991

This is a primary journal written by people in the department of Infectious Disease and pediatric. This source discusses staphylococcus and the effect it can have on children. It does not discuss essential oil however, they discuss the issue of staphylococcus. This source is helpful to know how staphylococcus affects human skin but does not discuss antibacterial treatment for staphylococcus.

Dawoud, E. E., Gihan Mohammed, E. M., & Hala, N. F. (2020). STUDIES ON SOME PLANT EXTRACTS AS ANTIMICROBIALS AND FOOD PRESERVATIVES. The Journal of Microbiology, Biotechnology and Food Sciences, 9(4), 790. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.15414/jmbfs.2020.9.4.790-798

This journal article discussed the effect of essential oils against bacteria that are toxic. They tested the essential oils as a natural food preservative which is a safe option to keep food free of bacteria. This article was useful because it tested peppermint oil and tea tree oil against Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus as a foodborne pathogen. I found this article to be useful since the article had a focus on bacterias that are foodborne pathogens. Essential oils like peppermint and tea tree were used for the test.

Hammer, K. A., Carson, C. F., & Riley, T. V. (2008). Frequencies of resistance to melaleuca alternifolia (tea tree) oil and rifampicin in staphylococcus aureus, staphylococcus epidermidis and enterococcus faecalis. International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents, 32(2), 170-173. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1016/j.ijantimicag.2008.03.013

This is a journal article that discusses tea tree oil against staphylococcus aureus. This article discussed the background of tea tree oil and was tested with staphylococcus aureus. There are different strains of staphylococcus aureus and tea tree oil was tested against each of the strains. This article was useful because it discussed tea tree oil and the antimicrobial effects against staphylococcus aureus.

LeBel, G., Vaillancourt, K., Bercier, P., & Grenier, D. (2019). Antibacterial activity against porcine respiratory bacterial pathogens and in vitro biocompatibility of essential oils. Archives of Microbiology, 201(6), 833-840. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1007/s00203-019-01655-7

This is a peer review article that discusses the antibacterial activity against bacterial pathogens. This article was useful for the topics such as essential oils and how effective they are towards certain pathogens that were used. It did discuss tea tree oil and peppermint oil. It also discussed biofilm killings. This was a useful article because this article illustrates the oils and their antibacterial activity/killings. This research also used these oils against staphylococcus aureus and bacillus cereus.

LIU, T., WANG, J., GONG, X., WU, X., LIU, L., & CHI, F. (2020). Rosemary and Tea Tree Essential Oils Exert Antibiofilm Activities In Vitro against Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Journal of Food Protection, 83(7), 1261–1267. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.4315/0362-028X.JFP-19-337

This is a primary journal written by people from a college with a background in engineering and food science. This journal is related to my topics since both bacteria that I chose are in food that we eat and get packaged. The authors discuss tea tree oil against staphylococcus aureus. This was an article that was useful to have evidence that tea tree oil is effective for staphylococcus aureus

Premkrishnan, B. N. V., Heinle, C. E., Uchida, A., Purbojati, R. W., Kushwaha, K. K., Putra, A., Santhi, P. S., Khoo, B. W. Y., Wong, A., Vettath, V. K., Drautz-Moses, D. I., Junqueira, A. C. M., & Schuster, S. C. (2021). The genomic characterisation and comparison of Bacillus cereus strains isolated from indoor air. Gut Pathogens, 13(1), 1–10. https://doi-org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1186/s13099-021-00399-4

This is a journal article that was written by life science engineers. This article discussed where bacillus cereus can be located and how it affects humans. This article was useful because it does explain how the bacteria can be harmful. It also discusses bacillus cereus antibacterial resistance. This article focuses one the gene characteristics of bacillus cereus.

Silva, N., Alves, S., Goncalves, A., Amaral, J. S., & Poeta, P. (2013). Antimicrobial activity of essential oils from mediterranean aromatic plants against several foodborne and spoilage bacteria. Food Science and Technology International, 19(6), 503-510. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.1177/1082013212442198

This article discusses foodborne bacteria and essential oils that were used against foodborne bacteria. This study suggests that using essential oils can be a natural way to get rid of bacteria that can be found in food. This article was useful because it used tea tree oil as an essential and staphylococcus aureus bacteria as a foodborne pathogen. It also discussed bacillus as a foodborne bacteria but not peppermint oil.