The Antimicrobial Activity, Hydrophobicity and Toxicity of Sulfonium Compounds, and Their Relationship

The sulfonium compound is a kind of cationic surfactant as well as a quaternary ammonium which has been used widely around the globe. This study investigated the antimicrobial activity, the hydrophobicity, the toxicity of several sulfoniums and their relationship with the aim of clarifying their antimicrobial activity and toxicity, and, furthermore, of predicting their usefulness availability as antimicrobials. As a result, the antimicrobial activity, expressed as the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) of the sulfoniums examined in this study, tended to decrease with the increase of their hydrophobicity, estimated by ClogP, and their antimicrobial activity against the gram-positive bacteria was higher than that against the gram-negative bacteria used in this study. The antimicrobial activities of several sulfoniums against the gram-positive bacteria were higher than those of some common cationic antimicrobials including quaternary ammoniums such as cetylpyridinium chloride (CPC) and benzalkonium chloride (BKC). In contrast, the antimicrobial activities of the sulfoniums against the gram-negative bacteria were lower than those of some common cationic antimicrobials. Meanwhile the toxicity, in particular, the acute dermal irritation/corrosion of the sulfoniums, tended to be lower than that of common cationic antimicrobials which were toxic in many cases indices. These results suggest that the sulfoniums might become useful antimicrobials which are less hazardous to human health than common cationic antimicrobials.