Efficacy of Fatty Acid Amide Derivatives against Listeria monocytogenes.

Fatty acid amide derivatives of lauric, myristic and palmitic acids were synthesized and evaluated for their inhibitory activity against the cocktail of four Listeria monocytogenes (LMC) strains. Pyrrolidine amide derivative of Lauric (LAPY) and myristic (MYPY) acids exhibited time and concentration dependent inhibitory activity against LMC but pyrrolidine amide derivative of palmitic acid did not show any inhibitory activity. Treating LCM strains with 15 ppm of LAPY for 2 min resulted in 4.0 log CFU/ml reduction in bacterial count, and when the treatment was extended for 4, 6 and 10 min, the bacterial growth was inhibited completely. Similarly, treating LMC with MYPY resulted in significant log reduction but higher concentration was required compared to LAPY. Both LAPY and MYPY demonstrated remarkable inhibitory activity against LMC strains compared to lauric acid which is known to be active against Listeria and other gram‐positive bacterial strains. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate that pyrrolidine amide derivative of lauric and myristic acids have excellent inhibitory activity against LMC strains. These fatty acid amide derivatives can be considered as bio‐based antimicrobial agents that can control Listeria growth in food products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]