ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Food Microbiology
This article is part of the Research TopicBiofilm Control for Food Safety: From Processing to PackagingView all 3 articles
Aquilaria sinensis Essential Oil Inhibits Biofilm Formation and Virulence of Staphylococcus aureus
Provisionally accepted
Fang Wang1
Zhi-Wen Ding1Ying-Jie Wang1
Kai-Zhong Xu1
Owias Iqbal Dar1Min Wang2
Yangyang Liu3,4*Shi Tang1*- 1Hainan University, Haikou, China
- 2Hainan General Hospital, Haikou, China
- 3Hainan Provincial Key Laboratory of Resources Conservation and Development of Southern Medicine & International Joint Research Center for Quality of Traditional Chinese Medicine, hainan, China
- 4Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences & Peking Union Medical College Institute of Medicinal Plant Development Hainan Branch, Haikou, China
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Staphylococcus aureus is a major foodborne pathogen characterized by strong virulence and biofilm-forming ability, posing a persistent threat to food safety. Aquilaria sinensis (Lour.) Spreng, a medicinal and edible plant found in tropical regions such as Hainan, has rarely been investigated for its quorum-sensing inhibitory (QSI) potential. In this study, four types of A. sinensis essential oils were systematically evaluated for their ability to inhibit quorum sensing and related virulence in S. aureus. Among them, the Tong-Ti-Xiang type supercritical essential oil (TTC) exhibited the strongest activity. At a sub-inhibitory concentration of 125 μg/mL (1/4 MIC), TTC reduced biofilm formation by up to 78% without affecting bacterial growth. Confocal laser scanning Microscopy and scanning electron microscopy analyses further confirmed that TTC compromised the density and structural integrity of the biofilms. Moreover, TTC suppressed α-hemolysin activity and significantly downregulated quorum-sensing-regulated genes involved in biofilm formation and adhesion, including icaA, icaD, clfA, clfB, and agrA. Gas chromatography mass spectrometry analysis revealed that TTC is rich in chromone derivatives, among which 2-phenethyl-4H-chromen-4-one showed strong binding affinity toward the adhesion-associated IcaA protein and the QS-associated AgrA protein in molecular docking analysis, suggesting it as a key active compound responsible for the observed QSI effect. Overall, these findings highlight TTC as a promising natural anti-biofilm and anti-virulence agent for controlling foodborne pathogens.
Keywords: Quorum sensing inhibitors, Staphylococcus aureus, Aquilaria sinensis essential oil, Biofilms, Virulent factors
Received: 02 Sep 2025; Accepted: 10 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Wang, Ding, Wang, Xu, Dar, Wang, Liu and Tang. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Yangyang Liu, yyliu@implad.ac.cn
Shi Tang, tangshi705@hainanu.edu.cn
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