Study of the specific/non thermal effects of microwave radiation on bacteria

The overall aim of this thesis was to generate understanding as to whether the so-called 'non-thermal' microwave effects exist and to use this knowledge to advance microwave application technologies. The obtained results advocate that the decontamination of pathogenic bacteria in raw meat and on the surface of transplant biomaterial is possible using 18 GHz microwave radiation at sub-lethal temperatures. It was also discovered that microwave radiation causes the formation of reversible pores within the bacterial cell membrane. Furthermore, increased enzyme activity was also demonstrated to occur for microwave processed bacteria. The implications of this research include the adaptation of microwave radiation to the non-thermal sterilisation of raw produce and biomaterials. Secondly, microwave radiation using our optimised settings could be further refined for the development of new drug delivery systems. Finally, industrial laboratories aimed at enzyme production can also utilise the microwave technique to attain prompt and higher yields of products at much lower activation temperatures thereby reducing production costs.