Investigation of Ecotoxicity of Ionic Liquids Using Different Microbes

The vast development of a huge number of novel ionic liquid is resulted from the intense growth in research of this interesting subject. The world has taken a deep concern in the development of ionic liquid for the advancement in various industries, including microbiological fields. The use of microorganism as replacement for chemical catalysts in synthetic processes may be further increased by the replacement of conventional organic solvents, with this so called “designer solvent” known as ionic liquids. Ionic liquids have been widely reported as “green” solvent due to their negligible vapour pressure. However, only few reported the toxicity level of ionic liquids when tested against microorganism. This review will discuss matters of the toxicity of different concentration of ionic liquids, namely 1- butyl- 3-methylimidazolium dimethylphosphate (BMIM DMP), 1- methyl- 3-methylimidazolium dimethylphosphate (MMIM DMP), 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium octyl sulfate (BMIM OSU) and 1- butyl- 3- methylimidazolium hydrogen sulfate (BMIM HSO4) towards selected microorganisms; Aeromonas Hydrophila, Eschericia Coli, Listeria Monocytogenes, and Staphylococcus Aureus using Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) test. MIC test will be evaluated based on the graph obtained for EC50, which is the ionic liquid concentration that gives half maximal response. From this study, we can determine if the toxicity level of ionic liquid is high, the ionic liquid can act as an antimicrobial for the pharmaceutical industry, where else nontoxic ionic liquid can be used for bioprocess/biotechnology industry.