Review Article
Sari Metsämuuronen and He
Abstract
The extracts of Scots pine, Norway spruce, silver and white birches stem, bark, roots, leaves and needles contain several useful bioactive compounds that exhibit antibacterial activity against pathogens. Both phenolic extracts and essential oils are bacteriostatic against several bacteria. The main individual antibacterial phenolic compounds in Scots pine are pinosylvins that effectively inhibit growth of pathogens such as Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogenes. From other phenolic compounds lignans appeared to be the least bacteriostatic and flavonoids tend to occur as glycosylated forms which have lower antibacterial activity than their aglycones. Gram-positive bacteria are generally more susceptible to plants bioactive compounds than gram-negative bacteria.