OPTIMIZATION OF INCUBATION TEMPERATURE ON THE ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY OF ZINC OXIDE NANOPARTICLES

ABSTRACT

Over the years, bio-activated minute particles called nanoparticles have shown promising antibiotic effects against several pathogens affecting plants and animals. As a result, this study centered on the assessment of green synthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles performance against the growth of microbes suspected to be the cause of mosaic, wilt, and leaf spot diseases of Manihot esculenta. Moringa oleifera extract was prepared against zinc nitrate precursor salt solution and zinc nanoparticles obtained. The zinc oxide nanoparticles stored at temperature ranges of 40C, 370C, 400C were characterized using ultraviolet-visible (UV-Vis) spectrophotometer. The absorption bands which associated with stretching of Zn-O nanoparticles was recorded at 350nm. In the agar well technique, zinc oxide nanoparticles tested against pure bacteria cultures showed zone of inhibitions ranging from 0.00±0.00 to 1.90±0.20 cm for ZnONP incubated at 40C, 1.30±0.05 to 3.60±0.50cm for ZnONP incubated at 370C and 0.00±0.05 to 0.80±0.50cm for ZnONP incubated at 400C. Results from the study show that nanoparticles incubated at 37oC demonstrate better antibacterial compared to those synthesized at 4 and 40oC. This finding encourages the use of these nanoparticles at industrial scale in the fields of nanomedicine and pharmaceuticals as it could open new horizon in nanomedicine. However, further in-depth research is needed to establish critical facts.