The antibacterial effect of silver/laterite and silver/laterite/chitosan nanocomposites on some bacteria and fungi that cause infections in cutaneous wounds

The proliferation of antibiotic-resistant microorganisms in wounds has grown efforts to synthesis the antibacterial nanostructured compounds for overcoming on antibiotic-resistant microorganisms. The aim of the current study is to investigate the antibacterial and anti-fungal activities of laterite nanoparticles (Ltt-NPs), silver/laterite (Ag/Ltt-NCs) and silver/laterite/chitosan nanocomposites (Ag/Ltt/Chn-NCs) by analyzing minimum inhibitory concentration, minimum bactericidal concentration and killing-time of Candida albicans fungus and Acinetobacter baumannii, Streptococcus pyogenesis, Escherichia coli and Proteus mirabilis bacteria. We found that, where 5.0 µg/ml of Ag/Ltt-NCs are efficient against Acinetobacter baumannii and Streptococcus pyogenesis, 2.5 µg/ml of Ag/Ltt/Chn-NCs has a favorable efficiency against Escherichia coli and Proteus mirabilis. No significant difference was observed between the antibacterial activity of Ag/Ltt-NCs and Ag/Ltt/Chn-NCs (p=1.00). In addition, Ltt-NPs showed a poor antibacterial activity compared to the Ag/Ltt-NCs and Ag/Ltt/Chn-NCs. Moreover, we found that neither nanocomposite do not show antifungal activity. Our results show that the highest antibacterial activity of the nanocomposites occurs between 6-24 hours. In sum, the prepared nanocomposites show