Antioxidant, antibacterial, and antifungal properties of nanoemulsion of clove essential oil

Objective(s): The application of synthetic antimicrobial and antifungal compounds is reducing in the last decades in the food and nutrition fields owing to their various side effects and increasing interest of consumers to eat natural foodstuffs without artificial constituents. Clove (Syzygium aromaticum) has numerous medicinal properties, including analgesic, antiseptic, stimulants, carminative, and natural antihelminitic. The present study aimed to evaluate the antifungal, antioxidant, and antibacterial properties of clove essential oil (CEO) under in-vitro condition. Methods: Antioxidant property of nanoemulsion of CEO was evaluated in terms of radical scavenging ability against 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical. Antibacterial and antifungal effects of nanoemulsion of CEO were evaluated using agar disk diffusion assay. Results: Antioxidant property of CEO was found to be 92.45 ± 5.49%. Based on our findings, the food-borne pathogens were shown the highest sensitivity to the CEO (inhibition zone = 5.12-14.34 mm), followed by the probiotic microorganisms (inhibition zone = 2.57-4.44 mm), and fungi (inhibition zone = 2.13-3.19 mm), respectively. Conclusions: The results of the present study indicated that nanoemulsion of CEO has good antimicrobial and antioxidant properties under in-vitro condition.