Ionic liquids and organic salts with antimicrobial activity as a strategy against resistant microorganisms

•Ionic liquids (ILs) can be used to create antimicrobial compounds•Imidazolium-, ammonium-, phosphonium-, pyridinium-, pyrrolidinium-, piperidinium-based ILs are the most studied.•Alkyl chain lengths with longer ILs showed stronger antimicrobial performances.•IL-assisted hydrogels, membranes, patches, conjugates and nanoparticles exhibited interesting antimicrobial properties.•A group of uniform materials based on organic salts (GUMBOS) has potential to be used against antimicrobial resistance.