Effectiveness of chitosan against wine-related microorganisms

Abstract

The antimicrobial action of chitosan against wine related microorganisms, including Lactobacillus plantarum, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Oeonococcus oeni, Lactobacillus hilgardii, Brettanomyces bruxellensis, Hanseniaspora uvarum and Zygosaccharomyces bailii was examined in laboratory media. In order to assess the potential applicability of chitosan as a microbial control agent for wine, the effect of chitosan, applied individually and/or in combination with sulphur dioxide (SO2), on the growth of microorganisms involved in various stages of winemaking and on the fermentative performance of S. cerevisiae was investigated. Of the seven wine-related microorganisms studied, S. cerevisiae exhibited the strongest resistance to antimicrobial action of chitosan in laboratory media with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) greater than 2 g/L. L. hilgardii, O. oeni and B. bruxellensis were the most susceptible to chitosan since they were completely inactivated by chitosan at 0.2 g/L. The MIC of chitosan for L. plantarum, H. uvarum and Z. bailii was 2, 0.4 and 0.4 g/L, respectively. In wine experiments, it was found that chitosan had a retarding effect on alcoholic fermentation without significantly altering the viability and the fermentative performance of S. cerevisiae. With regard to non-Saccharomyces yeasts (H. uvarum and Z. bailii) involved in winemaking, the early deaths of these yeasts in mixed cultures with S. cerevisiae were not probably due to the antimicrobial action of chitosan but rather due to ethanol produced by the yeasts. The complex interactions between chitosan and wine ingredients as well as microbial interactions during wine fermentation considerably affect the efficacy of chitosan. It was concluded that chitosan was worthy of further investigation as an alternative or complementary preservative to SO2 in wine industry.

Lactobacillus plantarum, a New Biological Tool to Control Malolactic Fermentation: A Review and an Outlook

“…Certain forms of chitosan, a natural polymer derived from chitin, exhibit antimicrobial properties. Chitosan is well known for its antimicrobial properties against yeast, bacteria, and fungi [57,58], and a preparation extracted from a fungal source has been used to neutralize contamination by Brettanomyces bruxellensis [59]. More recently, Chitosanglucan formulation has been released to inhibit wine lactic acid bacteria and delay or inhibit malolactic fermentation.…”

Molecular and Phenotypic Characterization of Metschnikowia pulcherrima Strains from Douro Wine Region

“…Moreover, due to the increasing interest in more organic wines, there is a tendency in the regulations for limiting the use of SO 2 , which have led to the search for alternative compounds to replace it [58]. Among these compounds there is chitosan, whose applicability as a microbial control agent against wine related microorganisms was recently studied [59]. The authors found that chitosan was able to inhibit the growth of the non-Saccharomyces yeasts Hanseniaspora uvarum, ZygoSaccharomyces bailii and Brettanomyces bruxellensis with Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) values of 0.4, 0.4, and 0.2 g L −1 , respectively.…”

Microbial Resources and Innovation in the Wine Production Sector

“…Organic wine processing may be more challenging than that of conventional wine, especially under regulations prohibiting SO 2 . A number of compounds have been tested in order to replace SO 2 in wine, such as wine bacteriocins, chitosan and lysozyme (Díez et al, 2012;Bagder Elmaci et al, 2015;Ancìn-Azpilicueta et al, 2016), and several physical methods have been tested, including pulsed electric fields and high hydrostatic pressure (Santos et al, 2013). However, none of these practices provided a real replacement for SO 2 , or its use is not allowed in organic wine production (Guerrero & Cantos-Villar, 2015).…”