article · Journal of nanostructure in chemistry
Agricultural waste in the form of cocoa pod husk extract can be used under ambient conditions to synthesise silver nanoparticles. The resulting nanoparticles are mostly spherical, crystalline, and range between 4 and 32 nanometres in size. Laboratory evaluations demonstrate that these nanoparticles display strong antioxidant properties and act effectively against multidrug-resistant strains of Klebsiella pneumoniae and Escherichia coli. Furthermore, they work synergistically to boost the efficacy of conventional antibiotics such as ampicillin and cefuroxime. When incorporated into emulsion paint, the nanoparticles completely inhibit several bacterial and fungal species, preventing surface microbial growth. Additionally, the synthesised particles exhibit potent larvicidal activity against Anopheles mosquito larvae at concentrations between 10 and 100 micrograms per millilitre. These findings demonstrate an ambient synthesis route turning agricultural waste into functional nanomaterials.
Using agricultural waste such as cocoa pod husks to produce functional silver nanoparticles offers an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional chemical synthesis. The resulting materials address key public health and industrial challenges, including multidrug-resistant bacterial infections, mosquito-borne disease transmission, and the microbial degradation of coated building surfaces.
The findings point to applications in antimicrobial coatings, pharmaceutical formulations to support existing antibiotics, and mosquito vector control. Paint manufacturers and public health programmes targeting malaria vectors are potential end users. The research represents laboratory-stage testing of synthesis and biological efficacy, indicating the technology is at an early research stage and requires further formulation, safety validation, and scale-up testing before practical adoption.
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The present investigation reports utility of cocoa pod husk extract (CPHE), an agro-waste in the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) under ambient condition. The synthesized CPHE-AgNPs were characterized by UV–visible spectroscopy, Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, Energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy and transmission electron microscopy. The feasibility of the CPHE-AgNPs as antimicrobial agent against some multidrug-resistant clinical isolates, paint additive, and their antioxidant and larvicidal activities were evaluated. CPHE-AgNPs were predominantly spherical (size range of 4–32 nm) with face-centered cubic phase and crystalline conformation pattern revealed by selected area electron diffraction, while EDX analysis showed the presence of silver as a prominent metal. The synthesized nanoparticles effectively inhibited multidrug-resistant isolates of Klebsiella pneumonia and Escherichia coli at a concentration of 40 µg/ml, and enhanced the activities of cefuroxime and ampicillin in synergistic manner at 42.9–100 % concentration, while it completely inhibited the growth of E . coli , K . pneumoniae , Streptococcus pyogenes , Staphylococcus aureus , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Aspergillus flavus , Aspergillus fumigatus and Aspergillus niger as additive in emulsion paint. The antioxidant activities of the CPHE-AgNPs were found to be excellent, while highly potent larvicidal activities against the larvae of Anopheles mosquito at 10–100 µg/ml concentration were observed. Our study demonstrated for the first time the utility of CPHE in the biosynthesis of CPHE-AgNPs with potential applications as antimicrobial and larvicidal agents, and paint additives for coating material surfaces to protect them against microbial growth while improving their shelf life.
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DOI: 10.1007/s40097-016-0191-4
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