Characterization and Antibacterial Activity of Streptomycin Antibiotic Loaded Organo-Kaolinite

Antibiotics are medicines used against bacterial infection. In spite of its significance to kill bacteria, it also shows a problem with antibiotics resistance that makes it less effective to kill bacteria. Therefore, an improvement for the antibacterial agent is needed to inhibit bacteria growth and infections. Organo-kaolinite was selected in this study to act as a carrier system to improve antibacterial agent immobilization and increase the effectiveness of the antibiotic activity. Organo-kaolinite was prepared using cationic surfactant hexadecyltrimethylammonium (HDTMA) and it was adsorbed with different concentrations of streptomycin. The organo-kaolinite and streptomycin-organo-kaolinite were characterized by Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The characterization results showed that the attachment of cationic surfactant molecules and the adsorption of streptomycin on kaolinite surfaces did not affect the structure and the original morphology of the kaolinite. The antibacterial assay of the samples was carried out against Gram negative bacteria (Escherichia coli ATCC 11229) and Gram-positive bacteria (Enterococcus faecalis ATCC 29212) through disk diffusion technique (DDT). Based on the antibacterial assay results, streptomycin-organo-kaolinite showed better antibacterial activity compared to organo-kaolinite. This study revealed that the adsorption of streptomycin on organo-kaolinite showed a significant effect on killing bacteria and significantly increased its antibacterial activity compared to organo-kaolinite.