article · Earthline Journal of Chemical Sciences
Zinc oxide nanoparticles were produced through an eco-friendly green synthesis method using an aqueous fruit extract of Lagenaria breviflora as a reducing agent in a one-pot process. Phytochemical analysis confirmed that the fruit extract contained compounds such as flavonoids, tannins, alkaloids, and terpenoids. Physical and chemical characterisation showed the resulting nanoparticles are crystalline and spherical, with an average crystallite size of 17.33 nanometres and an average particle size of 82.10 nanometres. Laboratory evaluations demonstrated that the nanoparticles exhibit antimicrobial activity against several common bacterial and fungal pathogens, specifically Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans, and Aspergillus niger. The synthesised nanoparticles performed with higher antimicrobial efficacy than the crude fruit extract alone, showing inhibition zones comparable to commercial controls such as ciprofloxacin and fluconazole, pointing to their potential as alternative antimicrobial agents.
Developing affordable, environmentally friendly methods to produce nanoparticles offers an alternative to conventional chemical synthesis. Because these green-synthesised zinc oxide particles display measurable inhibitory action against prevalent bacteria and fungi, they represent an appealing avenue for tackling microbial pathogens using renewable plant resources, providing potential options to complement or substitute conventional antimicrobial treatments.
This work remains at an early laboratory stage, focused on synthesis and initial culture-plate antimicrobial screening. The findings could eventually interest pharmaceutical developers, healthcare product manufacturers, or biotechnology teams seeking bio-based antimicrobial agents. Moving towards real-world applications will require further applied testing, formulation development, and clinical evaluation to verify safety, efficacy, and scalability relative to established commercial antibiotics and antifungal drugs.
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Green synthesis involves eco-friendly approaches to producing materials, including nanoparticles. It is gaining more interest due to its affordability and renewability. In this study ZnONPs was synthesized using aqueous extract of Lagenaria breviflora fruit and assessed for it antimicrobial activities. The Aqueous extract of Lagenaria breviflora fruit was obtained by simple solvent extraction with double distilled water and the extract obtained was used as reductant in the synthesis of ZnONPs via a one pot facial synthetic pathway. The synthesized ZnONPs were characterized using UV-VIS, FTIR, XRD and SEM. The ZnONPs were further screened for their Antimicrobial activities against Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger using the well-diffusion method. Phytochemical screen carried out on the aqueous extract showed the presence of alkaloids, tannnis, flavonoids, terpenoids, saponins and carotenoids. A UV-vis peak of 357nm was observed for the ZnONPs, FTIR results showed the presence of -OH, -NH, -CH, -C=O, -C=C and -CO functional groups. XRD data confirmed the particles to be crystalline, with average crystallite size of 17.33 nm and the SEM result showed that the crystalline particles are spherical with an average particle size of 82.10nm. The antimicrobial screening of the synthesized ZnONPs showed average inhibition zones of 11mm, 11mm, 12mm, 10mm and 9mm for Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus aureus, Candida albicans and Aspergillus niger respectively. The synthesized ZnONPs showed better activity toward tested micro-organisms compared to the crude aqueous extract. ZnONPs as observed in comparison with the controls Ciprofloxacin and fluconazole can served as potential substitute.
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DOI: 10.34198/ejcs.12225.169177
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