Antimicrobial Activity of Peracetic Acid Preparation in the Presence of Various Compounds

It is known that peracetic acid (PAA) is one of the few powerful antimicrobial agents available for use as a sporicidal agent. In this study, the antimicrobial action of a commercial preparation of PAA is characterized and the effects of chemicals on the action are investigated using Escherichia coli cells. The antimicrobial activity of the PAA preparation used in this study was markedly higher under high temperatures and low pHs. However, such a high activity of PAA preparation was strictly inhibited in the presence of a chemical, such as some amino acids, metal salts, and metal chelating agents. By the quantitative analysis of PAA and H_2O_2, it was also observed that these inhibitory chemicals had a strong influence on decomposition of PAA. Although manganese sulfate, and O, O\u27-bis(2-aminoethyl) ethyleneglycol-N, N, N\u27, N\u27-tetraacetic acid (EGTA) had a slight inhibitory effect on the PAA antimicrobial action, these chemicals decomposed PAA, suggesting that these chemicals might reduce cell activity to the PAA resistance. Furthermore, our results indicate that the H_2O_2 contained in the PAA preparation has a slight effect on the antimicrobial action of the PAA preparation