THE EFFECT OF NISIN ON THE GROWTH OF CELLS AND SPORES OF CLOSTRIDIUM WELCHII IN GELATINE

Abstract

SUMMARY: The action of various concentrations of nisin on the development of cells and spores from untreated and heated suspensions of Clostridium welchii added to gelatine has been investigated, using a tube colony count technique. The development of vegetative cells was prevented by the presence of 2 Reading Units (R.U.) of nisin/ml of the final culture medium, although the effective concentration may have been 6 R.U./ml. Approximately 40 R.U./ml prevented colony formation from spores. Gelatine containing nisin was dried. A considerable proportion of the activity of the antibiotic was still present after storage for 5 weeks.

Inhibitory Effects of Nisin Against Clostridium perfringens Food Poisoning and Nonfood‐Borne Isolates

“…lactis is an attractive option due to its many positive attributes (Davies and Delves‐Broughton 2000; Cotter and others 2005). Nisin exerts its antimicrobial properties against several Gram‐positive organisms (Eastoe and Long 1959; Banerjeee and Sarkar 2004; Cotter and others 2005; Delves‐Broughton 2005) via 2 different mechanisms: (1) pore formation in the lipid membranes (Ruhr and Sahl 1985) and (2) cell wall synthesis inhibition by binding and mislocalization of lipid II (Wiedemann and others 2001; Hasper and others 2006). Importantly, nisin has been successfully used as a food preservative in a variety of food products (Thomas and Delves‐Broughton 2005).…”

“…Although a couple of studies have been conducted on the antimicrobial activity of nisin against C. perfringens (Eastoe and Long 1959; Guerlava and others 1998; Scannell and others 2000; Banerjeee and Sarkar 2004; Paik and others 2006), each of those studies was limited to a single laboratory or environmental strains of C. perfringens type A. Therefore, a detail study on the antimicrobial effect of nisin against a collection of enterotoxigenic C. perfringens type A FP and NFB clinical isolates both in laboratory conditions and in meat products is warranted.…”