Abstract

Infectious disease continues to be a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide despite advancements in many areas of human medicine. Improper and excessive use of antibacterial compounds has led to the rise of resistant species of bacteria. The research project focused on developing a series of new antimicrobial compounds and testing their activity against antibiotic resistant Gram-positive bacteria, such as strains of methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus and vancomycin resistant enterococci. New derivatives of an antibacterial base chemical structure were created by attaching a carbon aliphatic chain of varying lengths onto methylanthrinilic acid (the base structure). These compounds inhibited the growth of S. aureus bacteria with minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values ranging from 16-128 µg/ml.