Antimicrobial Activity Screening of Camellia japonica Flowers (var. Conde de la Torre)

The increased resistance of pathogenic microorganisms to a wide range of antibiotics has driven recent research efforts towards exploring and developing effective preservatives with better potential and new strategies to prevent this multi-resistance. Many of these studies have been on natural matrices such as plants. This is in line with consumer demand for more organic and natural products. A possible alternative could be using bioactive compounds from Camellia japonica flowers as bio-preservatives since they have been traditionally used in cosmetic products due to their biological properties. Among the bioactive molecules of camellias, it is worth highlighting phenolic compounds, anthocyanins, polysaccharides, polyphenols, polyunsaturated fatty acids, and pigments. However, to incorporate these bioactive molecules into products with antimicrobial purposes, it is necessary to conduct an extraction and purification of the target compounds. Thus, in this study, the antimicrobial activity of one variety of C. japonica flowers (var. Conde de la Torre), obtained by an easy and profitable extraction technique such as maceration, was analyzed. Results from this work showed that the variety under study has a significant antimicrobial activity in terms of inhibition zones against Staphylococcus epidermidis (14.02 mm), Staphylococcus aureus (10.84 mm), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (10.36 mm), Salmonella enteritidis (7.98 mm), and Bacillus cereus (5.05 mm). However, the var. Conde de la Torre of C. japonica did not show significant activity against Escherichia coli. In conclusion, Conde de la Torre can be used as a potential antimicrobial agent. However, more studies that determinate the compounds responsible for these bioactivities are needed.