Mechanistic Investigation on Antibacterial Activity of Essential Oils against Resistant Bacteria Species

Consumption of contaminated food affects millions and may even lead to death. For this reason, foodborne outbreaks are considered a public health problem. Commonly, eating food contaminated with pathogenic bacteria involves treatment with antimicrobials, like antibiotics. However, there is the aggravating circumstance of food contamination by resistant bacteria species (RBS). Microbial resistance to antimicrobials is an ecological problem and appears when microorganisms adapt to continuous exposure to an antimicrobial agent. Thus, there is an interest in studying potential safe alternatives to conventional antimicrobials. Natural antimicrobials have been increasingly studied because they are compounds naturally present in plants. Essential oils (EOs) are considered a complex mixture of aromatic and volatile compounds and have the potential to be applied as natural additives due to their natural biological activities, such as antibacterial, antifungal, and antiparasitic. Different EOs have exhibited antimicrobial properties against Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria species. This chapter describes some investigations about the antimicrobial effect of different EOs against RBS.