Antibacterial Effects of Cinnamaldehyde and Organic Acids, Alone and In Combination, against Listeria monocytogenes

Background and Recently, natural antimicrobials attracted a lot of attention due to increasing preference of consumers for organic products which are free of chemical additives. The aim of this study was to investigate the antibacterial activity of cinnamaldehyde in combination with acetic and lactic acids against L.monocytogenes.
The antibacterial effects of cinnamaldehyde, acetic and lactic acids were determined using minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC). Fractional inhibitory concentration (FIC) was also used to evaluate the combined antibacterial activity.
Based on our results, MIC values for cinnamaldehyde, acetic acid and lactic acid were 0.312, 2.5 and 5 μl/ml, respectively. FIC results showed that cinnamaldehyde combination with the organic acids had no interaction effects (1.0 Cinnamaldehyde, acetic and lactic acids were found effective in inhibiting the growth of L. monocytogenes. Meanwhile, organic acids can reduce the required amount of cinnamaldehyde.