Published Paper Details:

In the present study, the attention was on employing the plant essential oil extracts, to be efficiently used as antioxidant and antibacterial agents with an ultimate objective of developing replacements for the synthetic chemical preservatives in foods. For this study, the essential oil was extracted from Cymbopogon citratus by hydrodistillation method using ethyl acetate. It has been reported that phenolics and flavonoids are important indicators of antioxidant capacity which plays a vital role in improving food quality and preservation. C.citratus oil have been proved to have antibacterial activity against the tested food spoilage pathogens and antioxidant activity, which is generally attributed to high phenolic and flavonoid compounds owned by this oil. The FT-IR spectrum of lemongrass essential oil showed the presence of functional groups like alkanes, amines, aldehydes, esters and lactones, phenols, anhydride, alcohols, imine / oxime, nitro compounds and organic halogen compounds which prove to exhibit medicinal properties. The study was also extended to find the anticancer ability of C.citratus oil against breast cancer MCF 7 cell line. The preservation study was carried out on easily perishable food like Indian anchovy fish (Stolephorus indicus) with a focus for maintenance of quality and prolong shelf life. The results indicate that C.citratus oil treated fish sample stored on ice remained fresh for 7 days and hence could be used as natural preservative thus replace or partly replace the synthetic food preservatives.