This work aimed to identify the chemical compounds of Cinnamomum burmannii leaf essential oil (CBLEO) and to unravel the antibacterial mechanism of CBLEO at the molecular level for developing antimicrobials. CBLEO had 37 volatile compounds with abundant borneol (28.40%) and showed good potential to control foodborne pathogens, of which Staphylococcus aureus had the greatest inhibition zone diameter (28.72 mm) with the lowest values of minimum inhibitory concentration (1.0 μg/mL) and bactericidal concentration (2.0 μg/mL). To unravel the antibacterial action of CBLEO on S. aureus, a dynamic exploration of antibacterial growth, material leakage, ROS formation, protein oxidation, cell morphology, and interaction with genome DNA was conducted on S. aureus exposed to CBLEO at different doses (1/2-2×MIC) and times (0-24 h), indicating that CBLEO acts as an inducer for ROS production and the oxidative stress of S. aureus. To highlight the antibacterial action of CBLEO on S. aureus at the molecular level, we performed a comparative association of ROS accumulation with some key virulence-related gene (sigB/agrA/sarA/icaA/cidA/rsbU) transcription, protease production, and biofilm formation in S. aureus subjected to CBLEO at different levels and times, revealing that CBLEO-induced oxidative stress caused transcript suppression of virulence regulators (RsbU and SigB) and its targeted genes, causing a protease level increase destined for the biofilm formation and growth inhibition of S. aureus, which may be a key bactericidal action. Our findings provide valuable information for studying the antibacterial mechanism of essential oil against pathogens.
Keywords: Cinnamomum burmannii essential oil; Staphylococcus aureus; antibacterial action; biofilm; oxidative stress; transcriptional expression; virulence gene.