Preparation, stability and antimicrobial activity of cationic cross-linked starch-iodine complexes

Cationic cross-linked starch (CCS)-iodine complexes containing different amounts of quaternary ammonium groups (different degrees of substitution (DS)) and iodine have been obtained by iodine adsorption on CCS from aqueous iodine potassium iodide solution. Equilibrium adsorption studies showed that with an increase of DS the amount of iodine adsorbed on CCS and the affinity of iodine to CCS increased linearly. The influences of the DS of CCS and the amount of adsorbed iodine on the stability of CCS-iodine complexes in a solution of 0.02M sodium acetate and reactivity toward l-tyrosine have been investigated. At the same DS, the stability of CCS-iodine complexes decreased with an increase of the amount of adsorbed iodine. With increasing the DS, the stability of CCS-iodine complexes increased. The iodine consumption in the reaction with l-tyrosine increased significantly with an increase of the amount of adsorbed iodine. The influence of DS on iodine consumption was lower and depended on the amount of adsorbed iodine. The antibacterial activity of CCS-iodine complexes against Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli was determined by the broth-dilution and spread-plate methods. The obtained results have demonstrated that an appropriate selection of the CCS-iodine complex composition (the DS of CCS and the amount of adsorbed iodine) could ensure good antimicrobial properties by keeping a low concentration of free iodine in the system. The main advantage of using CCS-iodine complexes as antimicrobial agents is the biodegradability of the polymeric matrix.