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ABSTRACT
Green-synthesised nanoparticles offer various advantages over conventionally physicochemically synthesised nanoparticles. These synthesised nanoparticles have various biological and medicinal applications. In this study, zinc oxide nanoparticles were synthesised using the leaf extract of Jatropha J. curcas and 0.01 M zinc acetate dihydrate (as a precursor) for the nanoparticle synthesis. The optical, morphological, and structural properties of the synthesised nanoparticles were investigated using Fourier transform infrared (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and ultraviolet-visible spectrophotometers (UV-Vis). The antimicrobial analysis was done using the agar dilution method against some Gram-positive, Staphylococcus aureus, and Gram-negative E. coli, Klebsiella pneumonia, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The formation of ZnO NPs was confirmed by a change in the colour of the reaction mixture. UV peaks at 290 nm confirm the presence of ZnO NPs, while the presence of various bioactive functional groups that were responsible for the reduction of the bulk zinc acetate dihydrate to ZnO NPs was confirmed using FTIR. SEM analysis showed that the nanoparticles are spherical in shape. Green-synthesised JC-ZnO NPs demonstrated important antimicrobial activities when tested against Gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus, this implies that plant-synthesised nanoparticles can be used to develop many important biomedical products.
