Antibacterial Effect of Water-Soluble Arrowroot (Puerariae radix) Tea Extracts on Foodborne Pathogens in Ground Beef and Mushroom Soup

Abstract

Antimicrobial activity of water-soluble arrowroot tea extract was evaluated against Escherichia coli O157:H7, Salmonella enterica Serotype Enteritidis, Listeria monocytogenes, and Staphylococcus aureus in ground beef and mushroom soup. The concentrations of arrowroot tea used were 0, 3, and 6% (wt/wt) for ground beef and 0, 1, 5, and 10% (wt/vol) for mushroom soup. Samples without tea extract were considered controls. Each sample was stored for 0, 1, 3, 5, and 7 days at 7 degrees C for ground beef and for 0, 1, 3, and 5 days at 35 degrees C for mushroom soup. On each sampling time, proper dilutions were spread plated on each pathogen-specific agar. Viable cell counts of each pathogen were performed after incubation at 35 degrees C for 24 to 48 h. For ground beef, Salmonella Enteritidis and L. monocytogenes were slightly suppressed by approximately 1.5 log, compared with the control, on day 7 at 3 and 6% arrowroot tea treatment. For mushroom soup, all test pathogens were suppressed by 6.5, 4.7, 3.4, and 4.3 log at 5% and 6.0, 4.7, 5.0, and 4.3 log at 10% against E. coli O157:H7, Salmonella Enteritidis, L. monocytogenes, and S. aureus, respectively, compared with the control on day 5. Mushroom soup with 1% arrowroot tea also showed 2.3- and 2.7-log growth suppression of Salmonella Enteritidis and S. aureus, respectively, compared with the control on day 5. This study showed that the use of arrowroot tea would effectively inhibit the microbial growth of both gram-negative and gram-positive foodborne pathogens in various foods, especially liquid foods.

New Chemical and Biochemical Hurdles

“…Plant EOs are usually mixtures of several components. For example, arrowroot tea extract has reported antimicrobial activity against E. coli O157: H7 (Kim and Fung, 2004). Abo-El-Seoud and El-Tobgy (2010) investigated different formulations of anise, coriander, and black cumin EOs for their antimicrobial activity against some postharvest pathogenic microorganisms.…”

A case of generalized urticaria caused by arrowroot ingestion

“…1 In recent times, it has been used to treat alcohol addiction because it contains many useful isoflavones. Other studies 3,4 have demonstrated that it effectively inhibits microbial growth. Although it has been used widely, few cases of hypersensitivity reactions induced by arrowroot ingestion have been reported.…”

“…2 Cases of allergy to gerbils have rarely been reported, and gerbil allergens have not been characterized to date. 3,4 A 33-year-old female biologist and smoker with pollinosis who worked with guinea pigs and gerbils was treated at Fundación Jiménez Díaz. One year after she began working with gerbils, she developed symptoms of nasal and ocular itching, tearing, sneezing, runny nose, and nasal stuffiness while working in the research facility with the gerbils.…”

Antimicrobial and Biofilm Effects of Herbs Used in Traditional Chinese Medicine

“…Although numerous herbs have shown some antimicrobial activity there is significant variation in the literature with regards to herbal antibiotic activity, in part due to the various extraction methods used, such as pressurized liquid extraction, sonication, supercritical fluid extraction and hydrodistillation, the solvent (water [1][2][3], oil [4] and ethanol [5]), and conditions of testing (aerobic) [1,[4][5][6][7]. Of note is that neither extraction method nor testing conditions may reflect typical usage of the herbs in CHM or host environment [8][9][10][11]. Furthermore, only a few of these studies reflect the effects that herbal extracts have on biofilm formation; a bacterial behavior that is present in the majority of infectious processes [12][13][14][15][16].…”