Essential oils as food eco-preservatives: Model system studies on the effect of temperature on limonene antibacterial activity

•Limonene has antimicrobial activity and can be used as food preservative.•Limonene incorporates into model bacteria membranes and leads to their fluidization.•Alterations induced by limonene in membrane are stronger at lower temperatures.•Increasing temperature may decrease the concentration of limonene in the system.

Antimicrobial properties of essential oils predestine these substances to be used as ecological food preservatives. However, their activity is determined by variety of factors among which external conditions and food properties are highly important. Herein the influence of limonene on artificial membranes was studied to verify the effect of temperature on the incorporation of this compound into model bacterial membrane. The investigations were done on lipid monolayers and the experiments involved the surface pressure-area measurements, penetration studies and Brewster Angle Microscopy analysis. It was found that limonene incorporates into lipid monolayers causing their fluidization. However, the magnitude of alterations depends on limonene concentration, model membrane composition and, for a given composition, on system condensation. Moreover, the influence of limonene is stronger at lower temperatures and, in the light of collected data, this may be a consequence of strong volatility and evaporation of limonene increasing with temperature.