Application of Supercritical Solvent Impregnation for Production of Zeolite Modified Starch-Chitosan Polymers with Antibacterial Properties.

In the present study, supercritical solvent impregnation (SSI) has been applied to incorporate thymol into bio-composite polymers as a potential active packaging material. Thymol, a natural component with a proven antimicrobial activity, was successfully impregnated into starch-chitosan (SC) and starch-chitosan-zeolite (SCZ) films using supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) as a solvent. Experiments were performed at 35 °C, pressures of 15.5 and 30 MPa, and an impregnation time in the range of 4-24 h. The highest impregnation yields of SC films with starch to chitosan mass ratios of 1:1 and 1:2 were 10.80% and 6.48%, respectively. The addition of natural zeolite (15-60%) significantly increased the loading capacity of films enabling thymol incorporation in a quantity of 16.7-27.3%. FTIR and SEM analyses were applied for the characterization of the films. Mechanical properties and water vapor permeability of films before and after the impregnation were tested as well. Thymol release kinetics in deionized water was followed and modeled by the Korsmeyer-Peppas and Weibull model. SCZ films with thymol loading of approximately 24% exhibited strong antibacterial activity against E. coli and methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus (S.) aureus (MRSA).

Removal of emerging pathogenic bacteria using metal-exchanged natural zeolite bead filter.

Hospital wastewaters can become a route for dissemination of antibiotic-resistant bacteria to the environment if not properly treated. Some of these bacteria are able to survive conventional disinfection treatments (e.g. chlorination, UV irradiation), which evokes the need for novel disinfection methods. The metal-exchanged zeolites were tested as novel antibacterial agents for wastewater treatment. The natural zeolite clinoptilolite enriched with silver (AgNZ) showed far better antibacterial activity towards hospital pathogenic bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii when compared with copper-exchanged zeolite (CuNZ), with minimal bactericidal concentration of 0.25-2 (AgNZ) compared with 32-64 mg L-1 (CuNZ) in a batch system and respective log 5.6 reduction compared with log 0.5 reduction in a flow system with pure bacterial culture. In the flow system with real effluent wastewater from the treatment plant, the removal of carbapenem-resistant bacteria using AgNZ was 90-100% during the 4 days of the experimental run. These results indicate that the AgNZ efficiently removes pathogenic bacteria from the wastewater, including A. baumannii, and is promising as a disinfectant material in a bead filter system.

Metal-loaded zeolite remediation of soils contaminated with pandrug-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii.

Due to the development of resistance to antimicrobial agents, bacterium Acinetobacter baumannii is nowadays a leading cause of nosocomial outbreaks. Clinically relevant A. baumannii outside hospital settings including natural soils affected by human waste represents a public-health risk for humans and animals. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential of metal-loaded zeolites to eliminate viable A. baumannii from artificially contaminated natural soils. A. baumannii isolate was subjected to the activity of natural zeolitised tuff (NZ) and Cu-modified (CuNZ) or Ag-modified zeolite (AgNZ) in wet, slightly acidic terra rossa and slightly alkaline red palaeosol. A. baumannii survived in terra rossa and red palaeosol supplemented with 1 wt% of NZ for seven days and four months, respectively. The addition of 1 wt% of CuNZ to terra rossa and red palaeosol shortened the survival of A. baumannii to three and 14 days, respectively. The addition of 0.1 wt% of AgNZ to both soils resulted in complete removal of viable A. baumannii within 1 h of contact, while the total native heterotrophic bacterial counts remained high. Since AgNZ is prepared with a simple modification of cost-effective and environmentally friendly natural zeolite, it is a promising material for the remediation of soils contaminated with pandrug-resistant A. baumannii.