Although many people expect their drinking water to be "flavorless", natural and processed drinking waters have flavors due to minerals and organics in the natural water. Since people can detect the flavor of water, the idea has been proposed that drinking water consumers be considered as sentinels who monitor water quality.
This paper explores specific sensory components of drinking water, how humans perceive their drinking water distributed by SEAAL (Soci

To the best of the our knowledge, no methodical reports comparing antibacterial effect (in liquid and vapour phase) of the Thymus vulgaris L. essential oil (TVEO) are available. In the present work, we investigated the antibacterial activity of TVEO in order to deduce the opportunity of using TVEO as an antibacterial drug. The extraction of TVEO was obtained by steam distillation. Chemical composition of the TVEO was determined by Gas Chromatography. A total of thirteen compounds were identified. Carvacrol (83.8%) was the major component, followed by cymene (8.15%) and terpinene (4.96%). Antibacterial action of the TVEO against 23 clinically isolated bacterial strains was determined by using agar disc diffusion and vapour diffusion methods at different doses. By disc diffusion method, TVEO showed potent antimicrobial activity against Gram-positive bacteria more than Gram-negative strains and antibiotic discs. The Diameter of Inhibition Zone (DIZ) varied from 25 to 60 mm for S. aureus, B. subtilis and E. coli. However, the results obtained by both agar diffusion and vapour diffusion methods were different. Significantly higher antibacterial effect was observed in the vapour phase at lower doses. S. aureus and B. subtilis were the most susceptible strains to the oil vapour. Therefore, smaller doses of EO in the vapour phase can be inhibitory to pathogenic bacteria. There is growing evidence that TVEO in vapour phase are effective antiseptic systems and appears worthy to be considered for practical uses in the treatment of human infections or as air decontaminants in hospital. TVEO has considerable antibacterial activity deserving further investigation for clinical applications. Also whilst the mode of action remains mainly undetermined, this experimental approach will need to continue.