Efficacy of pumpkin and onion essential oils against isolated Pseudomonas aeruginosa in cheese: a comparative study

Abstract

Greater resistance to environmental aggressors, including resistance to antibiotics and other disinfectants is a characteristic of the Pseudomonas spp. Consequently, one of the current study's goals was to isolate Pseudomonas spp. from 165 cheese samples (55 each of Tallaga, Bramily, and Ras cheese) were collected from various dairy markets and shops in Assiut city, Egypt. The isolates were identified and tested for 16S rRNA, showing positive results. According to the collected data, pseudomonas spp. was found in 42.42% of the samples that were investigated, while pseudomonas aeruginosa was found in 10.9% of the samples. Then, the effects of essential oils (EOs) of pumpkin (P) and onion (EO) on the viability of pseudomonas aeruginosa were investigated, the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the prepared onion EO (OEO) and pumpkin EO (PEO) was detected. Tallaga cheese samples were produced utilizing the MIC of the two prepared Eos separately. The agar well diffusion method was used to assess the influence of EOs, and the results showed that the MIC for PEO and OEO was 0.39%. In conclusion, after Tallaga cheese manufacturing, the OEO proved to be the most effective against pseudomonas aeruginosa. with a count of 5 log10 at 0 h and <1 after the first week.