Elaboration of Tea Polyp Chitosan Complexes with Antibacterial and Antioxidant Properties through Adsorption

Polyphenolic compounds are well known for having antimicrobial activities toward a large number of pathogenic bacteria [1?4]. Tea extracts have been associated to the inhibition of various Gram?positive and Gram?negative bacteria including Salmonella typhimurium and Vibrio cholerae [3,5? 10]. This of green tea inhibits Staphylococcus aureus, Shigella disenteriae, Vibrio cholerae, Campylobacter jejuni and Listeria monocytogenes of the food [5]. The antimicrobial activities of some polyphenols extracted from the green tea, including the epigallocatechin and the epicatechin gallate, as well as a theaflavin mixture of black tea against Salmonella, Escherichia coli and some species of the genus Vibrio have been also revealed [9]. To explain this benefic effect, an inhibition of DNA and RNA synthesis [11], this of cytoplasmic membrane function [12] and an interfering with energy metabolisms, of bacterial cells by green tea polyphenols, have been proposed.