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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, January 2000, p. 80-86, Vol. 66, No. 1
School of Applied Science, South Bank
University, London SE1 0AA, United Kingdom
Received 21 April 1999/Accepted 28 September 1999
The objective of this study was to determine whether chitosan
(poly-
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Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Antimicrobial Actions of Degraded and Native
Chitosan against Spoilage Organisms in Laboratory Media and
Foods
-1,4-glucosamine) and hydrolysates of chitosan can be used as
novel preservatives in foods. Chitosan was hydrolyzed by using
oxidative-reductive degradation, crude papaya latex, and lysozyme. Mild
hydrolysis of chitosan resulted in improved microbial inactivation in
saline and greater inhibition of growth of several spoilage yeasts in
laboratory media, but highly degraded products of chitosan exhibited no
antimicrobial activity. In pasteurized apple-elderflower juice stored
at 7°C, addition of 0.3 g of chitosan per liter eliminated
yeasts entirely for the duration of the experiment (13 days), while the
total counts and the lactic acid bacterial counts increased at a slower
rate than they increased in the control. Addition of 0.3 or 1.0 g
of chitosan per kg had no effect on the microbial flora of houmous, a
chickpea dip; in the presence of 5.0 g of chitosan per kg,
bacterial growth but not yeast growth was substantially reduced
compared with growth in control dip stored at 7°C for 6 days.
Improved antimicrobial potency of chitosan hydrolysates like that
observed in the saline and laboratory medium experiments was not
observed in juice and dip experiments. We concluded that native
chitosan has potential for use as a preservative in certain types of
food but that the increase in antimicrobial activity that occurs
following partial hydrolysis is too small to justify the extra
processing involved.
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: School of
Applied Science, South Bank University, 103 Borough Road, London SE1
0AA, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 171 815 7961. Fax: 44 171 815 6280. E-mail: rollers{at}sbu.ac.uk.
Applied and Environmental Microbiology, January 2000, p. 80-86, Vol. 66, No. 1
0099-2240/0/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
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