Abstract
The anti-yeast activities of a food-grade dilution-stable microemulsion against Candida albicans and Saccharomyces cerevisiae have been studied. The weight ratio of the formulated microemulsion is glycerol monolaurate (GML)/propionic acid/Tween 80/sodium benzoate (SB)/water = 3:9:14:14:24. Results of anti-yeast activity on solid medium by agar diffusion method showed that the anti-yeast activity of the microemulsion at 4.8 mg/ml was comparable to that of natamycin at 0.1 mg/ml as positive control. Results of anti-yeast activity in liquid medium by broth dilution method showed that the growth of both C. albicans and S. cerevisiae was completely inhibited when the liquid medium containing 106 cfu/ml was treated with 1.2 mg/ml microemulsion, which was determined as minimum fungicidal concentration. The kinetics of killing results showed that the microemulsion killed over 90% yeast cells rapidly within 15 min and caused a complete loss of viability in 120 min. Among the components, SB and GML had a similar anti-yeast activity, followed by propionic acid, while Tween 80 exhibited no activity and could not enhance the anti-yeast activities of these components, and it was revealed that the anti-yeast activity of the microemulsion was attributed to a combination of propionic acid, GML, and SB. The anti-yeast activity of the microemulsion was in good agreement with the leakage of 260-nm absorbing materials and the observation of transmission electron microscopy, indicating that the microemulsion induced the disruption and dysfunction of the cell membrane.
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Acknowledgment
We thank Dr. Junying Li, Zhejiang University for her assistance in TEM operation. This work was financially supported by the Ningbo Natural Science Foundation (Grant No. 2009A610171) and China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 20090461377).
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Zhang, H., Xu, Y., Wu, L. et al. Anti-yeast activity of a food-grade dilution-stable microemulsion. Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 87, 1101–1108 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-2623-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-2623-2