Antimicrobial and genotoxic activities of N-substituted 2,2'-dicarboxamidodiphenyldisulfides

This paper describes the in vitro evaluation of antibacterial, antifungal and genotoxic activities of a series of 2,2'-dicarboxamidodiphenyldisulfides. All the studied compounds exhibited antibacterial activity against Bacillus subtilis. Most compounds were also active against Staphylococcus aureus. Several compounds were active against Saccharomyces cerevisiae and, in most cases, also against Candida tropicalis. No effects were observed against Escherichia coli or Aspergillus niger. Antimicrobial activity turned out to be affected by the substituent in the benzene ring and structure-activity relationships were found. The antibacterial and antifungal activities of the studied derivatives were compared with those of the corresponding 1,2-benzisothiazolin-3-ones and in some cases strong differences were observed. None of the tested compounds contained alerting groups or showed genotoxic properties.