Journal of Applied Microbiology 1998, 84, 213215

Sensitivity of food pathogens to garlic (Allium sativum)

M. Kumar and J.S. Berwal
Department of Animal Products Technology, CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar, India
6045/01/97 : received 6 January 1997, revised 30 April 1997 and accepted 2 May 1997

The inhibitory activity of garlic (Allium sativum) against

Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes
was measured by the turbidity method. Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of
garlic at 80% inhibition level was calculated for these bacteria. All bacterial pathogenic strains
tested were inhibited by garlic ; E. coli was most sensitive and Listeria monocytogenes
was least sensitive. Therefore, garlic has potential for the preservation of processed foods.
M . K UM A R A ND J .S . B E RW AL . 1998.

INTRODUCTION

Garlic (Allium sativum), even from aoristic times, has been

used in all parts of the world not only as a spice or a food,
but also for treatment of many diseases. Its uses have been
inscribed on the walls of ancient Egyptian places of worship
and pyramids. Its importance has often been highlighted
in the scriptures (Pruthi 1980). The famous herbal doctors
Hippocrates, Paracelsus and Lonicerus recognized garlic as a
diuretic, an emmengogue, and used it for the treatment of
stomach chills, flatulence, colic etc. (Stoll and Seeback 1951).
Deshpande et al. (1993) observed the inhibitory effect of
garlic on pulmonary infection caused by the Mycobacterium
avium complex which may be life threatening in non-immunocompromised patients in early stages of immune deficiency
diseases such as AIDS.
The antibacterial (Sato et al. 1990 ; Waqar et al. 1994),
antifungal (Barone and Tansey 1977 ; Moore and Atkins
1977 ; Sato et al. 1993), antiviral (Rees et al. 1993), larvicidal
(Amonkar and Banerji 1971) and enzyme inhibitory (Wills
1956) activities of garlic have been widely studied. The active
inhibitory principle of garlic is allicin or diallyl thiosulphinic
acid (Saleem and Al-Delaimy 1982). Allicin is enzymatically
released from a precursor form when the garlic bulbs are
crushed.
The objective of this study was to evaluate the antibacterial
activity of fresh garlic bulbs against the potent food pathogens
Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi and
Listeria monocytogenes.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Garlic

Fresh garlic bulbs were obtained from the local market. These
were desegmented and deskinned. The segments were sterCorrespondence to: J.S. Berwal, Department of Animal Products Technology,
CCS Haryana Agricultural University, Hisar-125001, India.
1998 The Society for Applied Microbiology

ilized by washing with 02% mercuric chloride for 2 min

followed by five to six washings with distilled water. They
were then ground in aseptic pestle and mortar for use in the
present study.
Bacterial cultures

Bacterial cultures of Staph. aureus (MTCC-96), Salm. typhi

(MTCC-531), L. monocytogenes (MTCC-657) and E. coli
(MTCC-40) were obtained from the Institute of Microbial
Technology, Chandigarh, India.
Media

Brain Heart Infusion broth (Sigma, St Louis, MO, USA)

was used as growth medium for L. monocytogenes, Staph.
aureus and E. coli, and Salm. typhi was grown on Growth
Media-3 broth (M.T.C.C. 1994) made with : beef extract, 10
g ; yeast extract, 20 g ; peptone, 50 g ; sodium chloride, 50
g ; distilled water, 1 l ; pH was maintained at 70202.
Measurement of inhibitory effect

The sterile Growth Media-3 broth and Brain Heart Infusion

broth were poured into sterile test tubes containing 0, 1, 5 or
10% garlic. These tubes were inoculated with 61106 cfu
g1 L. monocytogenes, 39106 cfu g1 E. coli, 18105 cfu
g1 Staph. aureus and 14105 cfu g1 Salm. typhi. The
initial O.D. was calculated at 620 nm on a spectrophotometer
(Spectronic-21, USA). The inoculated tubes and control were
incubated at 37 C for 24 h. The growth of organisms was
observed with the aid of the spectrophotometer as turbidity.
The difference between the final and initial readings was
interpreted as the growth of bacteria, whereas comparison of
the final readings with the control readings depicted the
inhibitory effect of garlic on bacterial cultures.

214 M . K UM A R A ND J . S . B E RW AL

Calculations of minimum inhibitory concentration

The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of garlic at an

inhibition level of 80% was determined by plotting change
in O.D. against the concentration of garlic. From the point
on the curve depicting 20% growth compared with that of
control (0% garlic), a line was plotted to meet the corresponding point on the y axis (representing the O.D.).
From the same point on the curve, a perpendicular was
dropped to the x axis (representing the concentration of
garlic). The point of intersection of this perpendicular on the
x axis represented the concentration of garlic which
inhibited 80% of the test micro-organisms and was designated
as minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC).

(Fig. 1). The maximum inhibitory effect of garlic was

observed against E. coli and the minimum against L. monocytogenes.
In the case of E. coli and Staph. aureus, inhibition occurred
rapidly. Up to the 5% level of garlic, there was an almost
80% inhibition and after that, very gradual inhibition was
observed. With L. monocytogenes, a gradual fall in growth was
recorded with increasing garlic level. For Salm. typhi, a rapid
decrease in growth was observed, with 50% inhibition at 1%
garlic and 90% inhibition at 10%.

RESULTS
Inhibitory effect of garlic

The growth of the bacterial strains in different concentrations

of garlic observed at 620 nm was expressed as O.D. (Table
1). The higher the O.D. the greater was the number of microorganisms. More than 80% inhibition of the growth of Staph.
aureus took place at a level of 5% garlic. The O.D. was
reduced to 006200003 at 5% compared with 030200003
in the control (0% garlic). Almost 90% inhibition in the
growth of Salm. typhi was observed at the 10% level, with
the reduction in O.D. from 03420005 in the control to
004200004. Among the food pathogens tested, E. coli was
found to be the most sensitive. More than 90% cessation of
growth was observed at 10% garlic level. The O.D. was
reduced to 003200005 at the 10% level from 04920008
in the control. The O.D. for L. monocytogenes showed 85%
inhibition at the 10% level of garlic.

Minimum inhibitory concentration

Fig. 1 Inhibitory effect of garlic (Allium sativum) on (a)

The MIC of garlic for E. coli, Salm. typhi, Staph. aureus and
L. monocytogenes was 395, 70, 50 and 88%, respectively

Escherichia coli, (b) Salmonella typhi, (c) Staphylococcus aureus

and (d) Listeria monocytogenes

Growth of bacteria (O.D.)

Garlic

concentration
Staphylococcus Salmonella
Escherichia
Listeria
(%)
aureus
typhi
coli
monocytogenes

0
03020005
03420005
04920008
03420004
1
01720005
01720004
02220004
02620005
5
006200003
009200038
006200006
01520003
10
003200007
004200004
003200005
004200004

Table 1 Growth of different

pathogens in the presence of garlic

(Allium sativum)

1998 The Society for Applied Microbiology, Journal of Applied Microbiology 84, 213215

S EN SI T IV IT Y OF FO O D P AT H OG EN S TO GA R LI C 215

DISCUSSION

Garlic contains 0305% allicin, an antimicrobial component

(Shelef 1983). According to Zaika et al. (1983), the Grampositive bacteria are generally more sensitive to allicin than
Gram-negative bacteria. Lactic acid bacteria are the most
resistant among the Gram-positive bacteria. However, the
above views are debatable, as Al-Delaimy and Ali (1970)
reported that Staph. aureus was less sensitive than E. coli to
the effect of garlic.
Hefnawy et al. (1993) observed the enhanced effect of garlic
powder compared with other spices against L. monocytogenes.
Abdou et al. (1972) concluded that 510% fresh garlic was
sufficient to inhibit the growth of E. coli, Shigella dysenteriae,
Salm. typhosa and Staph. aureus completely. Al-Delaimy and
Barakat (1971) used fresh garlic bulbs for the preservation of
ground camel meat. Flair (1993) described garlic as a novel
means of extending the safety and quality of food. Sakai
(1995) patented an antibacterial spray on the basis of the
active principle of garlic for the preservation of food. He
extracted the essential oil from garlic and used this essence
alone, or in combination with epsilon-polylysine, at a concentration of 1256 mg ml1 for food preservation.

CONCLUSIONS

Garlic is a potent inhibitor of food pathogens. Foods contaminated with pathogens pose a potential danger to consumer health. Use of garlic would increase the shelf-life and
decrease the possibilities of food poisoning and spoilage in
processed foods.

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1998 The Society for Applied Microbiology, Journal of Applied Microbiology 84, 213215