3.3.2. Antimicrobial Activity

The antibacterial and antifungal properties of haskap extract and colouring formulations are presented in Table 4 as MIC (minimum inhibitory concentration), MBC (minimum bactericidal concentration), and MFC (minimum antifungal concentration) values. The extract was able to inhibit the growth of all the studied bacterial strains in concentrations of 3.41 (*L. monocytogenes*, *E. coli*, *E. cloacae*, and *S. typhimurium*) and 6.81 (*B. cereus*, *S. aureus*, and *L. monocytogenes*) mg/mL. Interestingly, these were also the concentrations needed to obtain a bactericidal effect in these microorganisms, which could mean that the compounds responsible for haskap extract antibacterial activity have mainly a bactericidal capacity [29]. In what concerns the antibacterial properties of the colorants, in general, the formulation prepared with maltodextrin revealed lower MIC and MBC values than the other colorant, and in some cases, it was also more active than the extract in inhibiting bacterial growth. Regarding antifungal properties, the extract revealed a stronger activity in *T. viride* and *A. versicolor*, with lower MIC (2.13 and 6.81 mg/mL, respectively) and MFC (13.63 and 13.63 mg/mL, respectively) values. In fact, the MIC value presented by the extract for *T. viride* was even lower than those showed by the positive controls Ketoconazole (4.75 mg/mL) and Bifonazole (5.70 mg/mL). Regarding the formulations, the same tendency could be observed for this fungus, in which both colorants revealed a strongest inhibitory activity than the positive controls (1.26 and 2.54, in the case of haskap + maltodextrin and haskap + maltodextrin+arabic gum, respectively). For the colorant prepared with maltodextrin, the MIC value against *P. ochrochloron* was also lower (2.52 mg/mL) than the ones found for the positive controls (3.8 mg/mL). This formulation was more active against all fungi than the one containing maltodextrin and arabic gum as well as the extract. Raudsepp et al. [30] previously reported the capacity of this fruit extract to inhibit *Bacillus subtilis*, *Kocuria rhizophila*, *E. coli*, *Lactobacillus acidophilus*, and *Campylobacter jejuni*. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on haskap fruits' antifungal properties, which limits our possibilities of comparing the results obtained herein with the data in the literature; nevertheless, all the samples (extract and colouring formulations, specially haskap + maltodextrin) revealed promising results in these microorganisms.
