article · REVIEWS ON ADVANCED MATERIALS SCIENCE
An aqueous extract of the plant Opuntia ficus-indica can synthesise silver, gold, and silver-gold alloy nanoparticles from metal salt solutions. Spectroscopic analysis confirmed the formation of these spherical particles, with sizes ranging between 11 and 54 nanometres, and indicated that plant proteins served as capping and stabilising agents. Laboratory testing demonstrated that the green-synthesised nanomaterials possess notable antimicrobial and antioxidant properties. Pure silver nanoparticles showed the highest antibacterial activity, while the silver-gold alloy nanoparticles proved most effective against fungi. All three particle variants displayed dose-dependent antioxidant activity during standard chemical scavenging assays, performing comparably to common antioxidants such as ascorbic acid and butylated hydroxyanisole. Overall, the findings establish plant-mediated synthesis as a viable method for generating biologically active metal and alloy nanoparticles.
Developing sustainable methods to produce functional nanomaterials is valuable for reducing reliance on hazardous chemicals. By showing that a plant extract can synthesise metal and alloy nanoparticles with measurable antimicrobial and antioxidant properties, this work highlights green chemistry alternatives for creating active compounds capable of targeting bacteria, fungi, and oxidative stress.
The abstract outlines an early-stage laboratory synthesis of antimicrobial and antioxidant nanoparticles. These materials could potentially inform applications in antimicrobial coatings, antifungal treatments, or antioxidant formulations developed by biotechnology and healthcare researchers. However, the work remains at an early experimental stage, focusing purely on synthesis and in vitro assays without addressing manufacturing scale-up, product formulation, or safety profiles.
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Abstract Aqueous extract of Opuntia ficus-indica (OF) was employed to reduce salt solutions of silver nitrate, gold chloride and silver nitrate/gold chloride to OFAgNPs, OFAuNPs, and OFAg-AuNPs respectively. Characterization of the particles was carried out using different standard methods, and their antimicrobial and antioxidant activities were also evaluated. The UV-vis spectroscopy showed silver, gold and silver-gold alloys nanoparticles with surface plasmon resonance at 462, 545 and 539 nm, respectively. The significant FTIR peaks: OFAgNPs (3300 and 1635 cm−1), OFAuNPs (3288 and 1635 cm−1) and OFAg-AuNPs (3307 and 1637 cm−1) for synthesized nanoparticles pointed to protein as both capping and stabilizing agent. Generally, particles were spherical with size range of 27-38 nm, 11-28 nm and 15-54 nm for silver, gold and silver-gold alloys nanoparticles respectively. OFAgNPs gave highest antagonistic effects against tested bacteria (35-82%), followed by OFAg-AuNPs (12-75%) and AuNPs (11-48%). The fungal inhibition of 44-70% for OFAgNPs, 42-79% for OFAuNPs and 52-92% for OFAg-AuNPs were obtained. DPPH scavenging activities were obtained as follows: OFAgNPs (52.25–57.50%), OFAuNPs (37.07-59.07%) and OFAg-AuNPs (37.07-63.00%) at tested concentrations of 20–100 µg/ml, which were dose-dependent in comparison with standard BHA (42.57–91.27%) and ascorbic acid (52.13–84.20%). The bleaching inhibition assay of ABTS showed activities of 41.33–61.83% (OFAgNPs), 27.37-50.60% (OFAuNPs) and 32.83-44.33% (OFAg-AuNPs). The synthesized nanoparticles demonstrated an excellent antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. The current study, to the best of our knowledge, is the first time to use Opuntia ficus-indica to synthesize silver, gold and silver-gold alloys nanoparticles.
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DOI: 10.1515/rams-2019-0039
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