Essential oils and bacteria

Literature Review 1

Literature Review

Mansimran Gill

6130826

BSC2011L U05

3/15/2021

Daniel Leon

Literature Review 2

Topic: Using Melaleuca alternifolia (Tea tree oil) is effective against staphylococcus aureus.

Mentha × piperita (Peppermint oil) has effective antibacterial properties against bacillus cereus.

Introduction: 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. However, these essential oils can be useful for specific bacterias.

I. Background information: Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus Cereus

A. Staphylococcus aureus is one of the most foodborne pathogenic bacteria. It can be located in air, water, and food. (Liu et al.2020).

B. Staphylococcus has about 50 species and is known as a highly resistant bacteria. Also known as “queen of resistance.” (BOSIOC et al. 2020)

C. 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)

D. Bacillus Gram is positive and has a small-rod shape.(Premkrishnan et al. 2021)

II. Background information: Tea tree and peppermint oil

A. 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)

B. Tea tree is used worldwide and used commonly as a topical treatment antimicrobial and

anti-inflammatory agent. (Hammer et al. 2008)

C. Peppermint oil is considered an aromatic oil.

D. Peppermint oil possesses monoterpene compounds. It also has L-menthol.( Alammar et al.

2019).

Literature Review 3

III. Tea tree Antibiofilm activity against Staphylococcus aureus

A. Staphylococcus aureus were added to the wells of a 96-well plate and incubated for 24h at

378C to form mature biofilms.(Liu et al, 2020).

B. 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).

C. TEO against S. aureus biofilm was 82.07 and 83.49%. At the same EO concentrations, tea tree

oil had a big difference on the inhibitory effect on the S. aureus. (Liu et al, 2020).

D. Tea tree oil made Staphylococcus aureus very sensitive. ( Bosioc et al, 2020).

IV. Peppermint resistance against Bacillus cereus.

A. Bacillus cereus can be found in feces or vomit in humans. (Alammar, 2019)

B. 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)

C. Bacillus cereus is a food borne pathogen and if this bacteria is found in food. It is toxic to

humans. (Alammar, 2019)

Literature Review 4

D. 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).

V. Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus food borne pathogens

A. Main cause of food poisoning is bacteria which is infectious and toxic to humans.( Dawoud et

al, 2020).

B. Bacillus cereus is more common in food than Staphylococcus aureus

C. Bacillus cereus and Staphylococcus aureus can be found in humans. (Premkrishnan et al,

2021).

D. Both of these bacteria are foodborne pathogens (Silva et al, 2013)

VI. Conclusion:

Mentha × piperita (Peppermint oil) and (Tea tree oil) can both be useful for food borne

pathogens which can make us sick. These essential oils are a natural way to keep us safe and get

rid of staphylococcus aureus and bacillus cereus.

Literature Review 5

Annotated Bibliography

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

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.0238991

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.

Literature Review 6

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.

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.

Literature Review 7

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.

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.

Literature Review 8

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.

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.

Literature Review 9

Synthesis of D-limonene loaded polymeric nanoparticles with enhanced antimicrobial properties

for potential application in food packaging. (2021). Nanomaterials, 11(1), 191.

doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.fiu.edu/10.3390/nano11010191

This article discusses the antimicrobial properties of essential oil in food packages. Essential oils

were tested on food to see how effective each oil was against certain packaged food. There was

an experiment that determined the antimicrobial properties. Several essential oils were tested.

This article was useful since the experiment used the essential oils in food packaging that we eat

daily. This study shows the most effective way to get rid of bacteria using essential oils. Food

will not be harmful with chemicals that are being used.

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.