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The antibacterial activity of a series of soluble pyridinium-type polymers with different compositions against Escherichia coli (E. coli) suspended in sterilized distilled water was investigated by a colony count method. The results show that the antibacterial activity of the soluble pyridinium-type polymers is characterized by their activity to kill bacterial cells and this activity can be enhanced as the content of the pyridinium group (Cq) in the polymers increases. The species of the bacteria has a great influence upon the antibacterial activity of the soluble pyridinium-type polymers. The polymers possess a strong ability to kill Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, and yeasts, excepting Bacillus subtilis, having gemmae and fungi. The toxicity of this kind of polymer has also been appraised. In the acute stimulation and allergy experiments, the red maculae, edema, and abnormal phenomena of an allergy on the skin of the tested animals were not observed. The acute toxicity experiment shows that the LD50 of the polymer is 2330 mg/kg, implying that this kind of polymer has only very weak toxicity. This is significant for the application of soluble pyridinium-type polymers. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Appl Polm Sci 67:1761–1768, 1998
Li et al. (1998) studied this question.