With the ever increasing size of the human population, the incidence of microorganism related infection has also shown signs of increasing. This fact has made an approach, both non-hazardous for human use and also effective at microorganism destruction, crucial for the modern day clinical setting. Maintenance of a sterile environment in the medical setting is a key factor that contributes to the majority of microorganism infection, or the lack of. Previous research has shown that antimicrobial surfaces are effective at minimizing the infection of bacteria, fungi, and viruses in humans. Our work serves to show agar as a surface base, in addition to the presence of various plant derived oils, to produce an effective and safe antimicrobial surface that can be applied as a natural sterilization material. Agar is infused with oils derived from plants, making the entire surface plant based. The oils used include Bergamot, Neroli, Geranium, Tea tree, Juniper, Patchouli, Catnip, Helichrysum, Peanut, Castor, and others. The new surfaces were tested against Staphylococcus aureus, a gram positive bacterium. The preparation of the materials and the results are reported herein.<br/>

Synthesis and investigation of a novel antimicrobial surface utilizing agar

255th National Meeting (2018)

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