Antimicrobial activity of imidazolium based ionic liquids

Searching for newly antimicrobial agents is of prominent importance. Today, it has been demonstrated that many ionic liquids (ILs) have a certain degree of antibacterial activity. However information on the antimicrobial activity of ILs is very scarce. This paper reports and compares antibacterial activity of methylimidazolium ionic liquids (ILs) including [BMIM][NO3], [OMIM][NO3], [BMIM][SCN] and [OMIM][SCN] against a wide range of pathogenic and semi-pathogenic, Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria. These include P. aeruginosa, S. aureus, E. coli, B. cereus, B. subtilis, S. typhimurium, and K. pneumonia. Antimicrobial activity was evaluated using conventional assays i.e. agar disk diffusion assay, agarwell diffusion assay as well as determining Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC). The results of the study demonstrated that all ILs have antimicrobial activity against mentioned pathogens, however in different degrees. In comparison, the ILs with longer alkyl chain length (octyl) showed very strong antimicrobial activity compared to ILs with butyl chain