Abstract
Momordica charantia (M. charantia) seeds are usually discarded; however, the oil extracted from seeds contains polyunsaturated fatty acids with potent antibacterial activity. Unfortunately, low extraction rate and instability of M. charantia seed oil (MCSO) limits its potential food applications. Therefore, it is crucial to explore industrial methods to increase the extraction yield and enhance stability of MCSO. Optimization of extraction process parameters for MCSO revealed a decrease in acid- and peroxide values with an α-eleostearic acid content of 41.07% ± 1.28%. Furthermore, polyvinyl alcohol/Tween-80/MCSO (PVA/T-80/MCSO) films were prepared by electrospinning, and they showed good encapsulation due to the enhancement of viscosity, electrical conductivity, fiber morphology, and intermolecular interactions. PVA/T-80/MCSO films exhibited remarkable antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, and Caenorhabditis elegans infected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa during in vitro and in vivo studies, respectively. Moreover, PVA/T-80/MCSO films successfully preserved strawberries by reducing microbial counts up to 13.8% on day 6 and controlling their moisture. This study provides new insights for the development of MCSO based natural and safe antibacterial packaging materials that could be used to enhance the quality and shelf life of food commodities.
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This research was supported by the General Project of the Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China (2022A1515010907; 2023A1515011266), and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (31700501).
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CC: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, methodology, software, writing—original draft; YL: conceptualization, data curation, formal analysis, methodology, software, writing—original draft; A: writing—review and editing; HC: writing—review and editing; YC: writing—review and editing, investigation, validation, supervision; YC: writing—review and editing, validation, supervision, funding acquisition, project administration, resources. All authors reviewed the manuscripts.
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Chen, C., Liu, Y., Abdullah et al. Antimicrobial Activity of Electrospun Nanofibers Film Incorporated with Momordica charantia Seed Oil for Strawberry Freshness. Food Bioprocess Technol (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-023-03284-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11947-023-03284-x