Study of biogenically fabricated transition metal oxides nanoparticles on oral cavity infectious microbial strains

Abstract

The selected six specific bacterial and fungal strains, which caused oral teeth decay were analyzed by antimicrobial iron oxide (Fe₂O₃), copper oxide (Cu₄O₃), and zinc oxide (ZnO) nanoparticles synthesized by aloe barbadensis leaves extract, using agar well diffusion method with 0.9% saline solution. TMOs comparatively had not been focused on oral cavity infectious pathogens to analyze antimicrobial activity. In the present study, TMOs were characterized by UV, SEM, FTIR, and XRD. Oral infectious strains (Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus licheniformis, Klebsiella pneumonia) and fungal strains (Aspergillus niger, Candida albicans) were used as test microorganisms. The effect of different concentrations of TMO-NPs (2.5 µg/mL, 5 µg/mL, 10 µg/mL) was studied by zone of inhibition (ZOI), minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), and minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). The zinc oxide nanoparticle with least particle-sized (37.8 nm) exhibited highest antimicrobial activity. In future, these zinc-oxide nanoparticles may be used in medicine for oral infectious diseases treatment.

Keywords:

• Nanomaterial
• X-ray diffraction (XRD)
• antibacterial activity
• metal oxides
• antifungal activity

Acknowledgements

The reported research was supported by the GCU Lahore, Department of Zoology for providing all fungi and bacterial strains for analysis and facility of the lab.