A comparison of antibacterial efficacy of some household detergents available in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, against 16 ATCC bacterial strains and clinical isolates

The emergence and spread of multidrug-resistant microorganisms are threats to public health due to its related increasing rates of morbidity and mortality in the world. Routine disinfection practices do not eliminate many of these resistant species and may contribute to the development in their resistance. Therefore, the current study evaluates the effectiveness of some popular detergents labelled as antibacterial and available at local market. Fifteen different brands of detergents were tested against thirteen American-type culture collection (ATCC) strains; five species related to Gram-positive bacteria, eight species to Gram-negative bacteria and three clinical isolates, (Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumonia and Methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) by measuring their efficacy by agar well diffusion technique and contact time assay. Dilution levels of detergents exhibited different zones of inhibition against the tested bacterial strains. The initial dilutions of detergents (DAC, SUNOVA, CLOROX, Drummer, GENTO, Dettol with pine, Dettol, Clorox Original, EMLAG and 3 M) showed inhibition zones ranging from 10 mm to >40 mm on Gram positive bacteria. Dettol, Clorox Original, EMLAG and 3 M showed inhibition zones ranging from 11 to 20 mm on limited numbers of Gram-negative bacteria at the first dilutions of detergents. The results showed that, Dettol, Clorox and 3 M were the strongest detergents compared to the other detergents included in this study. A contact-time assay showed a positive relationship between exposure time and efficacy of detergent against the tested bacterial strains.