In this study, the effort was to design and synthesize a series of thiourea-chitosan derivatives featuring five aryl substituted members namely N-chitosan-N'-(4-nitrobenzoyl) thiourea (1), N-chitosan-N'-(4-chlorobenzoyl) thiourea (2), N-chitosan-N'-(4-methylbenzoyl) thiourea (3), N-chitosan-N'-(2-iodobenzoyl) thiourea (4), and N-chitosan-N'-(2-methylbenzoyl) thiourea (5) via SN2 reaction pathway having different donating and withdrawing groups. Their molecular structures were then characterised by FT-IR, UV-Vis, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The antimicrobial activities of these derivatives against four species bacteria Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, and Escherichia coli of both Gram-positive and Gram-negative type bacteria at minimum concentration 6mg/ml were carried out to investigate their potential as antibacterial agents. Compound 1 exhibited specific activity as it can only inhibit Gram-positive bacteria while other compounds 2-5 showed broad range spectrum activity as they were able to inhibit both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. Therefore, 1-5 showed good antibacterial activity and have high potential to be further developed as active materials in pharmaceutical interests.
