Mechanism of Antimicrobial Effect of Quinone Compounds

The interaction between microbes (bakers' yeast, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus) and quinone compounds (p-benzoquinone (BQ), 1, 4-naphthoquinone (NQ) and 2-methy1-1, 4-naphthoquinone (VK3)) was examined in relation to the mechanism of the antimicrobial effect of quinone compounds.As a result, quinone compounds were divided in two types by the mechanism of growth inhibiting effect, i. e., the germicidal quinones such as BQ and NQ, and the microbe-static quinone such as VK3, though all of these quinones were observed to prolong the lag phase of the microbe growth without producing any other effect. In this case, it was considered that the germicidal activity depends upon the activity of 1, 4-addition reaction with amino compounds, and that the microbe-static action depends upon the disorder of the electron transfer in the cell metabolism by the microbial reduction of quinone.