Synthesis of ZIF-8(Fe) Functionalized with Citral as Potent Antimicrobial Candidate against Multi-Drug Resistant Enteroaggregative Escherichia coli and Non-Typhoidal Salmonella spp.

Zeolite imidazole framework is one of the sub-classes of metal-organic frameworks which can enhance the antimicrobial activity of antibiotics against multi-drug resistant (MDR) bacteria. In this study, the authors report nanoscale dual metal cluster-based ZIF-8(Fe) to encapsulate citral. UV-DRS and FTIR spectra confirmed the encapsulation of citral, while PXRD illustrated an average particle size of 36 nm with uniform-sized nanoparticles. Drug encapsulation and loading efficiency of citral into ZIF-8(Fe) were found as 19.30 and 77.20%, respectively, and 40% release of citral was observed within 24 h. The hemolytic potential of ZIF-8(Fe) was found to be less than 5% for 100 µg/mL. The in silico docking studies of citral with dispersin of enteroaggregative E. coli and osmoporin C for Salmonella spp. revealed binding energy (kcal/mol) of –4.67 and –4.53, respectively. Further, the MIC and MBC was found to be 62.50 and 125 µg/mL, respectively.