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Updated: Jun 27, 2026

Enrichment and Detection of Clostridium perfringens Toxinotypes in Retail Food Samples
Published on: October 18, 2019
Antimicrobial activity of essential oils and structurally related synthetic food additives towards Clostridium
1Guelph Food Research Centre, Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Guelph, ON, Canada.
Aims:
To assess the potential of essential oils and structurally related synthetic food additives in inhibiting the growth of Clostridium perfringens for the control of necrotic enteritis in chickens.
Methods And Results:
The antimicrobial activity of essential oils/compounds was measured by determining the inhibition of bacterial growth. Thirty-three of 66 oils/compounds exhibited > or =80% inhibition. Seven with the highest potency were further studied. The oils/compounds had MIC(95) values between 167 and 425 microg ml(-1). Most of them were tolerant to low pH (2.0) and exhibited minor or no inhibition of Lactobacillus isolates from the chicken intestine. When mixed with chicken ileal digesta, the oils/compounds retained their efficacy against C. perfringens, but had little effect on the total number of lactobacilli and anaerobic bacteria in the digesta.
Conclusions:
Some essential oils/compounds demonstrated good potential in controlling C. perfringens.
Significance And Impact Of The Study:
This study has identified candidates of essential oils/compounds for in vivo studies for the control of necrotic enteritis in chickens.
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