Inhibitory effects of brown algae extracts on histamine production in mackerel muscle via inhibition of growth and histidine decarboxylase activity of Morganella morganii.

This study was performed to investigate the inhibitory effects of brown algae extracts on histamine production in mackerel muscle. First, antimicrobial activities of brown algae extracts against Morganella morganii were investigated using a disk diffusion method. An ethanol extract of Ecklonia cava (ECEE) exhibited strong antimicrobial activity. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of ECEE was 2 mg/ml. Furthermore, the brown algae extracts were examined for their ability to inhibit crude histidine decarboxylase (HDC) of M. morganii. The ethanol extract of Eisenia bicyclis (EBEE) and ECEE exhibited significant inhibitory activities (19.82% and 33.79%, respectively) at a concentration of 1 mg/ml. To obtain the phlorotannin dieckol, ECEE and EBEE were subjected to liquid-liquid extraction, silica gel column chromatography, and HPLC. Dieckol exhibited substantial inhibitory activity with an IC50 value of 0.61 mg/ml, and exhibited competitive inhibition. These extracts were also tested on mackerel muscle. The viable cell counts and histamine production in mackerel muscle inoculated with M. morganii treated with ≥2.5 MIC of ECEE (weight basis) were highly inhibited compared with the untreated sample. Furthermore, treatment of crude HDC-inoculated mackerel muscle with 0.5% ECEE and 0.5% EBEE (weight basis), which exhibited excellent inhibitory activities against crude HDC, reduced the overall histamine production by 46.29% and 56.89%, respectively, compared with the untreated sample. Thus, these inhibitory effects of ECEE and EBEE should be helpful in enhancing the safety of mackerel by suppressing histamine production in this fish species.