Published in Scientific Papers. Series D. Animal Science, Vol. LXII, Issue 1
Written by Mara GEORGESCU, Ștefania Mariana RAITA
The antimicrobial effects of Nigella sativa have been studied in vitro and in vivo, against various microorganisms such as Enterobacteriaceae, Staphylococcus, Streptococcus, Salmonella etc. Recent studies proved antimicrobial effects of Nigella sativa seed oil (NSSO) against various contaminant bacteria in cheese. Due to promising results concerning NSSO effect against bacteria in brined cheese, this study tested NSSO effect against naturally occurring Staphylococcus spp. which contaminates kneaded, sheep´s milk Romanian cheese. Three batches of traditionally manufactured raw milk kneaded cheese were considered: control cheese without NSSO and cheese samples enriched with 0.1 and 0.2 w/w NSSO. Staphylococcus spp. enumeration revealed a descending trend in CFU/g throughout the ripening period, for all batches of cheese. The counts were lower for the 0.1% w/w NSSO cheeses than for the control batch, but no statistical significance could be attributed to this difference (p-value - 0.57). However, for the 0.2% w/w NSSO batch of cheeses, Staphylococcus count registered noticeable decrease, and the results were statistically significant (p-value - 0.048), and no colonies were obtained by the end of the ripening period.
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