Previous research showed that combination of chitosan and ce

Previous research showed that combination of chitosan and Curcumin australia nanocrystals (CNCs) can produce coating films with superior properties (Naseri, Mathew, Girandon, Fröhlich, & Oksman, 2015). CNCs are crystalline nanometer sized rod-like particles. It has been demonstrated that antimicrobial activity can be affected by conjugation of CNCs with different antimicrobial agents such as metal nanoparticles, organic compounds, etc. (Abouhmad, Dishisha, Amin, & Hatti-Kaul, 2017). We hypothesize that using CNCs could reinforce films produced from CNFs and therefore enhance its stability and even its functionality. To this end, an attempt was made here to produce antifungal coatings for banknotes through roller coating of CNFs and CNCs mixture with the highest noncytotoxic doses. Moreover, the fungal frequency on a common currency note of lower denominations was identified. Then, the efficiency of antifungal activity of coating was assessed against the most abundant fungal species on the banknotes.
Materials and methods
Results and discussions
Conclusions Identification results of fungal species in the surface of banknote papers (obtained from bakeries, butcheries, bus terminals and the hospitals) showed that various fungal species including, Aspergillus sp., Risopous, Penicillium, Aspergillus nigers, Mucor, Cladosporium and Aspergillus flavus grew on the surface of the papers. Applying CNCs alone as coating did not affect the fungal growth. Using a mixed suspension of CNFs and CNCs restricted the fungal activity on the surface. This study showed that CNCs could improve the antifungal effect of CNFs. The results of this study proved that the combination of CNFs and CNCs could be also an attractive suspension for antifungal coating for banknote papers, food industry and etc. Moreover, CNFs and CNCs could be used as surface coating or wet end additive in the paper making processes.
Acknowledgments The authors are grateful to the University of Tehran (Iran) and Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (Iran) for the financial support of ethylene research.
Introduction Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most serious threats to modern medicine and public health [1]. Antimicrobial stewardship programmes (ASPs) are considered essential for optimizing antimicrobial use in order to improve patient outcomes, reduce the number of adverse sequelae, prevent resistance, and ensure cost-effective therapy [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7]. The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society issued a joint policy statement on antimicrobial stewardship in 2012, calling for research on how to monitor ASP outcomes [8]. The amount of antimicrobials used, measured as a defined daily dose (DDD) or as days of therapy (DOT), is widely used as an indicator of ASP outcomes because measuring the appropriateness of each antimicrobial prescription is difficult [9], [10], [11]. Although DDD and DOT are considered objective indicators, a decrease in the use of one class of antimicrobials may lead to increased use of another class. This phenomenon is known as ‘squeezing-the-balloon’ [12]. In addition, optimal antimicrobial use is influenced by varying epidemiologic trends in bacterial resistance and other factors; hence, as tools for monitoring ASP, the DDD and DOT for any antimicrobial are too simplistic. We hypothesized that antifungal use may be considered a potential indicator for assessing ASP performance; the ‘squeezing-the-balloon’ phenomenon is less likely because there is a limited number of antifungal classes. In addition, the drug susceptibility of fungi is more stable than that of bacteria [13]. Therefore, we aimed to quantify the effect of an ASP and the accompanying educational activities using an interrupted time-series analysis based on antifungal use.
Methods