Author

Deepika Beniwal and Sarika Gupta*

Abstract

Food is a substance consumed by an organisms, and absorb by their cells to provide energy, sustain life and support growth. Chemical preservatives commonly added to the processed food can cause various side-effects in humans. This study explore the use of plant based biocides, specially essential oils- as a natural alternative to enhance the shelf-life of the manufactured foods without adverse effects on consumers. The current research focuses on the microbiological analysis of various raw and processed street food samples. This study evaluates the antimicrobial efficacy of five essential oils (EOs)- clove, lemongrass, mint, oregano, and black cardamom, at varying concentrations against foodborne pathogenic bacterial isolated from raw and processed street food samples sourced from local vendors. The microbial isolates included gram-negative bacteria (Enterobacter sp., Pseudomonas sp., Proteus sp., Acinetobacter sp., Moraxella sp., Escherichia sp.) and gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus sp., Bacillus sp., Streptococcus sp., Lactobacillus sp., Micrococcus sp.). The oils effects were analyzed at concentrations of 20%, 40%, 60%, 80%, and 100% (w/v) using one-way ANOVA with a significance threshold of p<0.001. Among the EOs tested, clove oil exhibited the highest antimicrobial activity, followed by mint, black cardamom, and oregano oils, with lemongrass oil demonstrating the least effectiveness. The results indicate that clove, mint essential oils are highly effective at 60% conc. followed by black cardamom EO in controlling foodborne pathogenic bacteria, offering potential for improving the safety, shelf life, and microbial quality of street foods.

pages:226-232

Doi Number 10.61289/jibs2026.09.15.0163

Keywords Antimicrobial activity, Essential oils, Natural biocides, Raw and processed food.