High hydrostatic pressure and biology: a brief history

Pressure as a thermodynamical parameter was successively introduced in physics, hydrometallurgy, geochemistry, and biology. In all cases, the main objective was to recreate a natural phenomenon (gas or liquid compressibility, synthesis or crystal growth of minerals, survival of deep sea microorganisms…). The introduction of high hydrostatic pressure (HHP) in Biology was an important scientific feature over the last hundred years. This paper describes the different steps that have led to the spreading of pressure in biology and the opening of new frontiers either in basic and applied researches due to the specific characteristics of the pressure parameter. Because of the low energy conveyed by this parameter, leading to the preservation of most organoleptic properties of foods, and its ability to inactivate many pathogens, the use of HHP began to spread at the end of the twentieth century into the food industry, in particular for the development of pathogen inactivation processes. Today, even if this field is still the first application domain for HHP, more and more research works have shown that this parameter could be of great interest in health and medicine sciences.