Inhibitory Effects of Vinegar and Plant Essential Oils Against Airborne Molds Collected Near a Dairy Farm

Author #1

Abstract

Mold growths are common in damp areas of a dairy farm and airborne mold spores and mold toxins could be hazardous for workers and animals. Mold growth often returns after remediation. The cleaning of molds in these situations by farm owners requires some mold cleaners such as bleach or other chemical solutions. However, researchers are now concerned about adverse side effects of these chemical solutions and their use in an organic farm is not desirable. Plant based products such as grape fruit seed extracts and tea tree oil have demonstrated promising effect against growth of mold pure cultures in our other study. How these products are particularly effective against airborne heterogeneous mixture of molds in a farming environment is, however, unknown. In this study, heterogeneous airborne culutrable molds were collected near an organic dairy farm using a Biostage viable impactor, which comprises an inlet cone, a 400-hole impactor stage, and a base that holds a standard-size agar plate. A Quicktake 30 high flow pump connected to this impactor pulls airborne molds at 28.3 L/min flow rate on the malt extract agar surface for approx. ten minutes. After sample collection, agar plates were incubated at 27å±2å¡C for 72 to 96 h. Altogether 18 samples were collected and 9 samples were treated with different dilutions of grape fruit extract, tea tree oil, and vinegar, whereas other 9 samples served as controls. Three 20 åµL drops of different dilutions of these natural products were applied on agar plate surfaces immediately after air sampling. Inhibition zones on agar plates were examined after the incubation of 96 hours. We found that up to five times dilutions of grape fruit seed extracts developed >5 mm zones of inhibition but similar dilutions of tea tree oil completely inhibited all mold colonies; whereas vinegar had very negligible effect.

 
Apr 16th, 10:45 AM Apr 16th, 12:00 PM

Inhibitory Effects of Vinegar and Plant Essential Oils Against Airborne Molds Collected Near a Dairy Farm

Nessmith-Lane Atrium

Mold growths are common in damp areas of a dairy farm and airborne mold spores and mold toxins could be hazardous for workers and animals. Mold growth often returns after remediation. The cleaning of molds in these situations by farm owners requires some mold cleaners such as bleach or other chemical solutions. However, researchers are now concerned about adverse side effects of these chemical solutions and their use in an organic farm is not desirable. Plant based products such as grape fruit seed extracts and tea tree oil have demonstrated promising effect against growth of mold pure cultures in our other study. How these products are particularly effective against airborne heterogeneous mixture of molds in a farming environment is, however, unknown. In this study, heterogeneous airborne culutrable molds were collected near an organic dairy farm using a Biostage viable impactor, which comprises an inlet cone, a 400-hole impactor stage, and a base that holds a standard-size agar plate. A Quicktake 30 high flow pump connected to this impactor pulls airborne molds at 28.3 L/min flow rate on the malt extract agar surface for approx. ten minutes. After sample collection, agar plates were incubated at 27å±2å¡C for 72 to 96 h. Altogether 18 samples were collected and 9 samples were treated with different dilutions of grape fruit extract, tea tree oil, and vinegar, whereas other 9 samples served as controls. Three 20 åµL drops of different dilutions of these natural products were applied on agar plate surfaces immediately after air sampling. Inhibition zones on agar plates were examined after the incubation of 96 hours. We found that up to five times dilutions of grape fruit seed extracts developed >5 mm zones of inhibition but similar dilutions of tea tree oil completely inhibited all mold colonies; whereas vinegar had very negligible effect.