Comparative Study of Antimicrobial and Staining Activity of Selected Anthraquinone Dyes

The staining activity of twelve (12) anthraquinone dye derivatives was carried out to investigate the potential of the compounds as staining agents. The reactions of the compounds on organism cell walls were determined, and a comparison was drawn between the mechanism of action of the compounds against established mechanism of reaction of standard dyes used in biological staining. These compounds are BRAM/acetylated PPD, BRAM/PAP/p-TsCl, BRAM/Biaryl/PAP and BRAM/BzCl/PAP, BRAM/aniline, BRAM/o-toluidine, BRAM/p-toluidine, BRAM/m-toluidine, BRAM/p-anisidine, BRAM/m-anisidine, BRAM/PAP, and BRAM/p-iodoaniline. The antibacterial and antifungal activity of these compounds was determined. BRAM/BzCl/PAP exhibited higher biological activity on the bacterial types than most of the controls. From the results of the antifungal test, BRAM/m-toluidine and BRAM/acetylated PPD indicated very significant activity as much as the controls. The staining tests carried out on the compounds show that they are viable alternatives to existing dyes currently used in bacterial and fungal identification.