A state-of-the-art review of antibacterial activity of non-toxic ionic liquids: Challenges, alternatives and outlook.

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a serious public health concern that is threatening the efficacy of existing treatments and raising mortality, morbidity, and financial costs globally. Even though they are essential, traditional antibiotics have serious disadvantages like toxicity, poor solubility, limited stability, and the quick emergence of resistant bacterial strains. As a result, ionic liquids (ILs), the salts having melting points lower than 100 °C and highly versatile physicochemical characteristics, have been thoroughly studied as substitute antibacterial agents. Although ILs have shown broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity and the ability to circumvent resistance mechanisms, their biomedical application is hampered by the variable cytotoxicity of many of the frequently studied ILs. Non-toxic, biocompatible ILs made with natural or generally recognized as safe (GRAS) ions, like choline, amino acids, carbohydrates, and vitamins, have become competitive substitutes for conventional ILs in order to address this issue. The antibacterial mechanisms of non-toxic ionic liquids, such as membrane disruption, enzyme inhibition, and nucleic acid interference, are described in this review along with their biomedical uses, including drug solubilization, implant coatings, wound dressings, and sophisticated drug delivery systems. It highlights methods for lowering the toxicity of conventional antibacterial ILs by substituting toxic ions with safe, biocompatible substitutes emphasizing how non-toxic ILs could serve as an effective means to deal with AMR.