The Essential Oil of Tunisian Halophyte Lobularia maritima: A Natural Food Preservative Agent of Ground Beef Meat

Boutheina Ben Akacha; Jaroslava Švarc-Gajić; Khaoula Elhadef; Rania Ben Saad; Faiçal Brini; Wissem Mnif; Slim Smaoui; Anis Ben Hsouna

doi:10.3390/life12101571

The Essential Oil of Tunisian Halophyte Lobularia maritima: A Natural Food Preservative Agent of Ground Beef Meat

Life (Basel). 2022 Oct 10;12(10):1571. doi: 10.3390/life12101571.

Authors

Boutheina Ben Akacha¹, Jaroslava Švarc-Gajić², Khaoula Elhadef³, Rania Ben Saad¹, Faiçal Brini¹, Wissem Mnif^{4

5}, Slim Smaoui³, Anis Ben Hsouna^{1

6}

Affiliations

¹ Laboratory of Biotechnology and Plant Improvement, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax, P.O. Box 1177, Sfax 3018, Tunisia.
² Faculty of Technology, University of Novi Sad, Bulevar Cara Lazara 1, 21000 Novi Sad, Serbia.
³ Laboratory of Microbial, Enzymatic Biotechnology and Biomolecules (LBMEB), Center of Biotechnology of Sfax, University of Sfax, Road of Sidi Mansour Km 6, P.O. Box 1177, Sfax 3018, Tunisia.
⁴ Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences and Arts in Balgarn, University of Bisha, P.O. Box 199, Bisha 61922, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ ISBST, BVBGR-LR11ES31, Biotechpole Sidi Thabet, University of Manouba, Ariana 2020, Tunisia.
⁶ Departement of Enviromental Sciences and Nutrition, Higher Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology of Mahdia, University of Monastir, Monastir 5000, Tunisia.

Abstract

This study was directed towards the investigation of the chemical composition and antimicrobial properties of the essential oil of Tunisian halophyte Lobularia maritime (LmEO). The antibacterial effects against major food-borne pathogenic and food spoilage bacteria were tested using the well diffusion method, followed by the determination of the minimum inhibitory (MIC) and bactericidal (MBC) concentrations. The essential oil has shown strong antimicrobial activity against eight pathogenic strains, which was attributed mostly to predominant constituents of the essential oil: benzyl alcohol, linalool, terpien-4-ol and globulol, as well as to synergistic effects of its major and minor constituents. Considering strong antimicrobial effects of the tested essential oil, it was further tested as a natural alternative to food preservatives, using minced beef meat as a model system. Minced beef meat was spiked with 0.019, 0.038, and 0.076% of the essential oil and stored during 14 days at 4 °C, monitoring its microbiological, physicochemical, and sensory properties. Chemical analyses revealed that meat treated with 0.076% of LmEO at underwent a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in primary and secondary lipid oxidation and reduced metmyoglobin accumulation compared with control samples. Furthermore, microflora proliferation in the meat model system spiked with 0.076% of LmEO was significantly (p < 0.05) reduced in comparison to control. In addition, two multivariate exploratory techniques, namely principal component analysis (PCA) and hierarchical analysis (HCA), were applied to the obtained data sets to describe the relationship between the main characteristics of the meat samples with and without essential oil addition. The chemometric approach highlighted the relationships between meat quality parameters. Overall, results indicated that the essential oil of Lobularia maritima deserves to be considered as a natural preservative in the meat industry.

Keywords: Lobularia maritima essential oil; antimicrobial properties; minced meat preservation; quality assessment.

Grants and funding

This work was partially funded by the Young Researcher’s project in its 3rd edition (20PEJC 01-01) and supported by Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research (Tunisia).