Effectiveness of Origanum vulgare L. essential oil to inhibit the growth of food spoiling yeasts

Origanum vulgare L. has been known as having many therapeutic properties and its antimicrobial activity has currently received a renewed interest. This study aimed to verify the effectiveness of O. vulgare L. essential oil to inhibit the growth/survival of various food spoiling yeasts. Anti-yeast activity was studied by determining the MIC by solid medium diffusion and microplate bioassay, as well as observing the effect of the essential oil MIC on the yeast cell viability. O. vulgare essential oil showed effectiveness to inhibit the growth of all assayed yeasts with MIC values for the most ones of 20 and 0.6 μL/mL when determined, respectively, by solid medium diffusion and microplate bioassay. Solid medium diffusion MIC presented statistically significant inhibitory effects (P < 0.05) on yeast cell viability, mainly when interacting with Candida albicans and Candida krusei. On the other hand, the microplate MIC just provided statistically significant inhibitory effects on the cell viability when interacting with C. krusei. These data show the anti-yeast property of O. vulgare essential oil.