The antimicrobial activity, toxicity and antimicrobial mechanism of a new type of tris(alkylphenyl)sulfonium.

The antimicrobial activity, toxicity and antimicrobial mechanism of a new type of tris(4-alkylphenyl)sulfonium which has sterically bulky alkyl substituents (bTAPS), were estimated and compared with those of other sulfoniums which we reported previously. Concerning tris {4-(iso-propyl)phenyl}sulfonium (bTAPS-iso3) and tris{4-(tert-butyl)phenyl}sulfonium (bTAPS-tert4), the antimicrobial activity of these compounds tended to be lower than both tri(n-alkyl)sulfoniums (TASs) and tris{4-(n-alkylphenyl)}sulfoniums (TAPSs) at similar ClogP values. However, the activities of tris{4-(cyclohexyl)phenyl}sulfonium (bTAPS-cyclo6) were clearly higher than those of TAS and were almost similar to those of TAPS at similar ClogP values. The mutagenicities of tested bTAPSs were judged to be all negative. Both the acute oral toxicity strength and the acute skin irritation/corrosion toxicity strength tended to follow the order of TAPSs > bTAPSs > TASs. However, only the acute skin irritation/corrosion toxicity strength of bTAPS-cyclo6 was almost as low as that of TAS which has a similar ClogP value to bTAPS-cyclo6. Because bTAPS-cyclo6 has both high antimicrobial activity and low toxicity, this compound might become to be an alternative antimicrobial compound to relatively hazardous antimicrobials which have been widely used in many fields.