Plant material extraction

Frozen florets (10 g) of UV-C treated broccoli were mixed with dry ice and ground in a coffee grinder to a smooth powder. The samples were combined with pre-warmed 80% ethanol (100 ml) in a Schott bottle and placed in a water bath at 80 °C for 5 minutes.

65 After keeping the samples at 5 °C for an hour, supernatant was filtered through a vacuum filter (0.45 μm filter paper) and transferred into a round bottom flask. The extraction process of Mahasneh and El-Oqlah (Mahasneh & El-Oqlah, 1999) was followed. Briefly, ethanol extract (80% ethanol) was evaporated to dryness at 40 °C under reduced pressure using a rotary evaporator (Buchi Rotavapor R-215, Switzerland) and the resulting gummy residue was partitioned as in the diagram (Figure 4.1). Firstly, residue was partitioned between chloroform and water (1:1 V/V): solvent-solvent partitioning. Then the crude chloroform extract was partitioned again between n-hexane and 10% aqueous methanol, and butanol extract was fractionated from aqueous extract. All the solvents were evaporated under reduced pressure at 40 °C. Final crude extracts of different solvents were dissolved in dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) (Fisher Scientific, UK) (DMSO- less than 1.5% in wells) to provide a consistent and moderately compatible solvent for use in microbial assay.

Ethanol Extract (80%) Dissolved in chloroform – water (1:1 V/V) Chloroform

extract Water extract

Distributed between n-hexane and 10% aqueous methanol Extracted with n- butanol Aqueous methanol soluble fraction Hexane soluble fraction Methanol crude Butanol crude Hexane crude Aqueous extract

Figure 4.1 Extraction procedure of broccoli using different solvents. 80% ethanol extracts of UV-C treated and non-treated broccoli were partitioned and fractionated using chloroform, water, n-butanol, 10% aqueous methanol and hexane. Final extracts were evaporated under reduced pressure at 40 °C to obtain crude extracts.

66 4.2.5 Microbial assay

4.2.5.1 Establishing L. monocytogenes growth curve

A single bead of the stock culture of L. monocytogenes (NCTC7973) maintained on

beads at -80 °C was transferred into 10 mL TSB (Difco Laboratories, Bacto Dickinson and Company, USA) and incubated for 24 h at 30 °C. Overnight culture was transferred into a centrifuge tube and centrifuged at 6000 g for 20 min at 4 °C. Supernatant was discarded and remaining cells were washed twice with distilled water. Ten millilitres (10 mL) of TSB was added to the tube and vortexed for 2 minutes. An aliquot of 100 μL was pipetted out into each well of the first 3 rows of 96 micro-well plate followed by 50

μL of TSB. Three replicated plates were used and all plates were incubated at 30 °C for up to 22 h. Optical density (OD) of the wells was measured regularly using a plate count reader (Spectro star-Nano, BMG LABTECH, Germany).

4.2.5.2 DMSO concentration assay

The same procedure was followed as in 4.2.5.1 to evaluate the effect of different concentrations of DMSO on the growth of L. monocytogenes. An aliquot of 50 μL of

the L. monocytogenes culture was pipetted into all the wells of 96 micro-well plate and

50 μL of different concentrations of DMSO (0, 0.125, 0.25, 1.25, 2.5 %) were added to each well (a separate row was used for each concentration) (Figure 4.2). Three replicated plates were used and all the plates were incubated for 24 h at 30 °C. Optical density was measured regularly during the incubation time.

4.2.5.3 L. monocytogenes assay

Each extract residue was dissolved in a measured volume of pure DMSO and TSB depending on their weight, to achieve twice the desired initial concentration (1 mg) of the crude extract and to make sure final concentration of DMSO in the wells was less than 2%. Fifty microliters (50 μL) of TSB was added to the wells of first four rows (A- D) of the 96 micro-well plate (Figure 4.2) except the first well of each row. One hundred microliters (100 μL) of broccoli extract was put in the first well of each row and then two-fold serial dilution was done up to 6 times (6 different concentrations of the extract). Then 50 μL of L. monocytogenes culture (1×106 CFU/mL) was added to

each well except for the first row (solvent control). Micro well plates were incubated at 30 °C for 20 h and OD was measured at every 2 h using a plate reader (2nd OD reading

67 was taken after 8 h of the first reading: initial experiments showed a very slow OD change during first 8 h). Each 96-micro well plate had three different treatments (Figure 4.2) from a single solvent extract and the experiment was replicated on three different plates. Three replicated samples were used for each treatment at different extraction times (6 h and 24 h after treatment). Change in optical density of each well was calculated by subtracting corresponding initial OD from the final OD at each time point.

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 A B Rep1 C Rep1 D Rep1 E F G H

Figure 4.2 Diagram showing the arrangement of aqueous extracts from treatments in a 96-microwell plate. Row A: solvent control (5.2 kJm-2 treatment), row B: 5.2 kJm-2 treatment, aqueous extract, row C: 2.6 kJm-2 treatment, aqueous extract, row C: untreated, aqueous extract

4.2.5.4 Experimental schedule

Replicates of different solvent extracts of UV-C treated and untreated broccoli obtained at different times after UV-C treatment were assayed against L. monocytogenes in

sequential manner (table 4.1) in order to avoid any effect of extract storage time on experiment results. A total of three months elapsed between the first and the last analysis.

4.2.6 Statistical analysis

A complete randomized design was used in this study. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to analyse the effect of treatments using General Linear Model of Minitab Version 16 (Minitab Inc., State College, PA, USA). Means were separated by Tukey’s test at significance level of 0.05. HSD values for repeated measures were calculated at each point of measurement.

Solvent control (5.2 kJm-2 treatment)

5.2 kJm-2 treatment, i.e.; Aqueous

2.6 kJm-2 treatment, i.e.;Aqueous

68 Table 4.1 Experiment schedule of extracting UV-C treated and untreated broccoli depending on replicate, time after treatment and solvent

Replicate

Extraction time

after treatment Fraction Order

1 24 h Aqueous 1 1 24 h Butanol 2 1 24 h Hexane 3 1 24 h Methanol 4 2 24 h Aqueous 5 2 24 h Butanol 6 2 24 h Hexane 7 2 24 h Methanol 8 1 6 h Aqueous 9 1 6 h Butanol 10 1 6 h Hexane 11 1 6 h Methanol 12 2 6 h Aqueous 13 2 6 h Butanol 14 2 6 h Hexane 15 2 6 h Methanol 16 3 24 h Aqueous 17 3 24 h Butanol 18 3 24 h Hexane 19 3 24 h Methanol 20 3 6 h Aqueous 21 3 6 h Butanol 22 3 6 h Hexane 23 3 6 h Methanol 24

4.3 Results and Discussion