Air Cleaning

Antimicrobial resistance developed due to the overuse of conventional antimicrobial agents in surface coatings and consumer products is a global concern for treatment of infectious diseases in recent years. To address this concern, US FDA has banned the use of a number of conventional antimicrobial agents in consumer and healthcare products such as hand soaps and hand sanitisers. This raises the importance of alternative antimicrobial agents in antiseptic products. Photoactive antimicrobial agents are effective alternatives which produce highly reactive oxygen species (ROS) when activated by light. These reactive oxygen species display broad-spectrum biocidal activity that destroy microbes by a multi-targeted killing mechanism, which may limit the development of antimicrobial tolerance or resistance. The researchers have developed a stabilised form of a plant-based antimicrobial agent to protect it from environmental degradation. The enhanced environmental stability of this natural photoactive antimicrobial agent has made it suitable to be incorporated in various materials for the self-sterilising product applications and may provide a “greener solution” to limit the spread of pathogens and transmission of infections by indirect contact.