A review on thymol-based bioactive materials for food packaging

Carvacrol and thymol effect in vapor phase on Escherichia coli and Salmonella serovar Typhimurium growth inoculated in a fresh salad

“…3 B), it is observed that the mixture reaches its maximum inhibitory power in less than 1 h, but with almost the same frequency values as the antimicrobials alone. Rojas et al [ 35 ] mentioned that thymol and carvacrol are highly volatile components, and their loss during cast film solvent evaporation is inevitable. The formation of hydrophobic droplets further enhances their evaporation and yields the formation of voids in the polymer.…”

“…In most of those studies, traditional methods, solvent casting, melt blending, or compression molding were used to load thymol and carvacrol into different polymer films. However, all of these techniques suffer from certain drawbacks, such as evaporation, thermal degradation, or uneven distribution of the active substance, as well as poor mechanical properties of films [ 13 , 35 ]. The mixture of thymol and carvacrol was reported to have positive synergetic antimicrobial effects.…”

“…Finally, despite the potential antimicrobial activity of thymol and carvacrol, there are some limitations to their use as free agents, such as their high volatility, hydrophobicity, and degradation in water [ 30 ]. Moreover, Rojas et al [ 35 ] highlighted important challenges such as determining the optimal processing technique and developing strategies for incorporating active compounds while preventing their loss and degradation. Their incorporation into foods by vapor phase can affect some sensory perception properties and stability during storage [ 36 ].…”

Thymol, a Monoterpenoid within Polymeric Iodophor Formulations and Their Antimicrobial Activities

“…Thyme extracts contain the antimicrobial secondary metabolites Thymol and carvacrol [3,5,[9][10][11][12][13][14]42,[60][61][62][63][64][65][66][67][69][70][71]. Thymol, a monoterpenoid with outstanding antimicrobial properties, appears in an increasing number of investigations in combination with other essential oils, plant extracts, nanoparticles, and chitosan [70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88]. Thymol is a strong antimicrobial agent, which can easily enter cell membranes due to its small size and structural properties [68,71,73,79,81,82,86].…”

“…Thymol, a monoterpenoid with outstanding antimicrobial properties, appears in an increasing number of investigations in combination with other essential oils, plant extracts, nanoparticles, and chitosan [70][71][72][73][74][75][76][77][78][79][80][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88]. Thymol is a strong antimicrobial agent, which can easily enter cell membranes due to its small size and structural properties [68,71,73,79,81,82,86]. Thymol can enter like carvacrol through the microbial cell membranes [82,86].…”