It has been well documented that monoterpene phenols, such as thymol and carvacrol, interact with the cell membrane by H bonding, rendering the membranes and mitochondria more permeable, disintegrating the outer cell membrane, and inhibiting
particularly the growth of gram (−) bacteria, such as, E. coli O157:H7, Staphylococcus aureus, S. enteric serovar Typhimurium, Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Brochothrix thermosphacta (Di Pasqua et al., 2007).