Improving Antibacterial and Anti-biofilmic properties of urological catheters with Eucalyptus, Rosemary, Green tea and Ziziphora extracts by impregnation method

Abstract The main complications of urinary catheters are the bacteria's biofilm formation and the urinary tract infection caused by gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria. In the recent years, the attention has changed its direction toward the antimicrobial, anti-biofilmic, and hydrophobicity effects of herbal extracts. Some of these extracts can inhibit the colonization of the two bacteria Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli which are resistant to antibiotics. These bacteria can stick to the surface of polymer materials due to their hydrophobicity. Thus, antibacterial hydrophilic herbal extracts are supposed to help reduce the risk of the surficial infection if they are used to impregnate the urinary catheters. In this research, the extracts of these four plants eucalyptus, rosemary, green tea and ziziphora were used as the antibacterial agents. After the impregnation and modification of the sample catheters, they were tested by AFM, FE-SEM, ATR-FTIR methods to measure their mechanical, chemical, and hydrophilic properties, during the 21-day experiment period, compared to non-impregnated ones. The tests showed the silicone catheters impregnated by the herbal extracts have some significant anti-biofilmic and antibacterial properties (P˂0.0001) due to the increase in their hydrophilic property. The impregnated catheters could be release the extracts and killed bacteria in 21 days Therefore; some herbal extracts can be good alternatives to chemical drugs.