Green Tea Polyphenols (pEGCG) as Potential Preservative and Anti-Bacterial Agents on Food

Green tea polyphenols have been shown to possess antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antibacterial properties. This study investigates the effects of novel modified lipophilic green tea polyphenols, derived from Camellia sinensis tea leaves called palmitoyl-EGCG (p-EGCG), on their antimicrobial activity in food. The foods that were used to conduct this experiment were ham, turkey, mixed salad, hummus, ground beef, chicken salad, potato salad and green salad. A 250 μg/mL final concentration of p-EGCG was used as the antimicrobial agent compared with the control of untreated in this experiment. With p-EGCG proving to be a potent organic food preservative with 85%-99% of inhibition on all of the food samples, as well as with similar percentage of inhibition after storing food treated with p-EGCG for three months. Using a culturing method, in each food samples, 5 to 6 most prominent and distinct colonies were isolated and characterized. These bacterial colonies were collected, stocked, DNAs were extracted and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) based assay using 16s primers was carried out. The bacterial DNA amplified by PCR was successful confirmed with band visualization by gel electrophoresis. The PCR products were be sequenced, then NCBI BLAST search to identify the predominant bacteria of each food sample. In summary, analysis on the inhibitory effects of p-EGCG and bacterial strain identification carries great importance due to the detrimental prevalence of food borne illnesses and food spoilage in low-income communities, as well as its impact on food and medical industries, from a public health–microbiological perspective.