Author(s)

Bushra Ali¹, Lee H. Lee¹, Nozrin Laskar¹, Nadia Shaikh¹, Hassan Tahir¹, Stephen D. Hsu², Robert Newby Jr.³, Jonathan Valsechi-Diaz³, Tinchun Chu^3*

¹Department of Biology, Montclair State University, Montclair, NJ, USA.
²Department of Oral Biology, Augusta University, Augusta, GA, USA.
³Department of Biological Sciences, Seton Hall University, South Orange, NJ, USA.

Endospores have the ability to withstand extreme temperature, desiccation, ultraviolet radiation and chemicals which make them a threat to the food and healthcare industry. Green tea polyphenols (GTP), contain anti-microbial and anti-spore properties but not stable. In this study, two modified lipophilic green tea polyphenols, epigallocatechin-3-gallate-sterate (EGCG-S) and crude lipophilic green tea polyphenols (LTP), were used to compare their anti-spore effect with EGCG and crude GTP. Purified endospores from Bacillus cereus (B. cereus), B. megaterium and B. subtilis were treated with 1% or 5% of four tea polyphenols. Log reduction showed colony forming units (CFU) reduced significantly in all treated samples, ranging from 1.27 to 4.31 with no survivals (CFU = 0) in four samples (P < 0.05). Average percentage of inhibition for these poly-phenols treatment ranged from 91.68% to 100%. The EGCG-S and LTP have equal or better anti-spore activities compared with EGCG and GTP. EGCG-S and LTP were further used to carry out time course study on B. cereus. The results indicated that 15 min of treatment of 1% and 5% LTP and EGCG-S are able to inhibit 98.7% to 100% of germination. Transmission and scanning electron microscopy studies showed that EGCG-S caused surface disruption and damaged spores structural integrity. EGCG-S and LTP are stable anti-spore agents may aid in preventing food and beverage spoilage caused by spore-forming bacteria as well as preventing contamination in the medical industry.

Bacterial Spores, Antimicrobials, Bacillus, Germination, Biocontrol

Ali, B. , Lee, L. , Laskar, N. , Shaikh, N. , Tahir, H. , Hsu, S. , Newby Jr., R. , Valsechi-Diaz, J. and Chu, T. (2017) Modified Green Tea Polyphenols, EGCG-S and LTP, Inhibit Endospore in Three Bacillus spp.. Advances in Microbiology, 7, 175-187. doi: 10.4236/aim.2017.73014.