Humic acids are the fraction of soil organic matter soluble in alkaline media and insoluble in acidic media. They have different properties and structures that will make them suitable for different uses such as agriculture, pollution remediation, medicine and pharmaceuticals. The objective of this study is to investigate the relationship between composition of humic acids and their antibacterial activity. Humic acids extracted from different soils and treated with organic solvents were characterized by solid state nuclear magnetic resonance and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. All the humic acid samples were tested for growth inhibition of Bacillus subtilis, Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, Staphylococcus aureus, and Staphylococcus epidermidis. The effect of humic acid samples on the growth of the six bacterial pathogens vary with the origin and extraction method of the humic acids.

Investigating the antimicrobial activity of humic acids

255th National Meeting (2018)

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