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Published on: May 15, 2019
Antibacterial activity of long-chain fatty alcohols against Staphylococcus aureus
Naoko Togashi1, Akiko Shiraishi, Miki Nishizaka
1Department of Microbiology, Showa Pharmaceutical University, Machida, 194-8543 Tokyo, Japan.
Abstract:
The antibacterial activity against Staphylococcus aureus of long-chain fatty alcohols was investigated, with a focus on normal alcohols. The antibacterial activity varied with the length of the aliphatic carbon chain and not with the water/octanol partition coefficient. 1-Nonanol, 1-decanol and 1-undecanol had bactericidal activity and membrane-damaging activity. 1-Dodecanol and 1-tridecanol had the highest antibacterial activity among the long-chain fatty alcohols tested, but had no membrane-damaging activity. Consequently, it appears that not only the antibacterial activity but also the mode of action of long-chain fatty alcohols might be determined by the length of the aliphatic carbon chain.
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