STAPHYLOCOCCUS-AUREUS AS AN EXAMPLE OF THE INFLUENCE OF LIPOPHILIC COMPONENTS ON THE MICROBIOLOGICAL ACTIVITY OF AROMATIC EXTRACTS

Within the family of Apiaceae you find many plants with fatty oil and essential oil in their ripe, spicy and aromatic fruits. Especially the essential oil with its pharmacological and antimicrobial effects is r esponsible for the enormous applicability in pharmaceutical and food i ndustry. The antimicrobial activity of the essential oils of Cumin, Ca raway and Coriander is determined in liquid media by measuring the opt ical density against the standard culture of Staphylococcus aureus. Th e correlation between antimicrobial activity on one hand and the proce ss of extraction and destillation on the other hand is illustrated and discussed. An essential result is the decreased or even raised antimi crobial activity by lipophilic components of spices and other foodstuf fs. If you want to compare the results of a microbial laboratory test system with the real antimicrobial activity of the sample, simulation of complex matrix and structure of your analyzed sample is neccessary.