MOSCOW, December 20 Scientists at Tyumen Medical University (TMU), as part of an international research group, used potatoes to produce silver nanoparticles. According to the authors of the work, silver nanoparticles obtained from an aqueous extract of white potato peel experimentally demonstrated antimicrobial and cytotoxic properties against a number of pathogenic microorganisms, which confirms the viability of this method of synthesizing nanoparticles for medicine. The results are published in Heliyon.
Metal nanoparticles play an important role in many fields of science and technology – from microelectronics to biomedicine, the university said. However, their production is associated with a high anthropogenic load on the environment.
Currently, there are three groups of methods for the synthesis of metal nanoparticles (in particular, silver): chemical, physical and biological. Chemical and physical methods require significant energy costs and financial investments, and also cause damage to the environment, so less expensive and more environmentally friendly biosynthesis, which also ensures better compatibility with living organisms, seems to university specialists the most promising for increasing the production of nanoparticles, explained TMU .
The biosynthesis of nanoparticles requires a large volume of plant mass to isolate substances that could reduce silver cations from solutions of its salts. To reduce crop areas and maintain the carbon balance in ecosystems, agricultural waste can be used for the biosynthesis of nanoparticles, university specialists explained.
As TMU said, one of the available sources of plant waste is potatoes , which is grown in significant quantities in many countries around the world and eaten on almost our entire planet.
TMU researchers, together with colleagues from Azerbaijan, China and Turkey, have developed a new method for producing silver nanoparticles, where the reducing agent is starch obtained from the peel of white potatoes (Solanum tuberosum).
«
“As part of the study, we proposed a method for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles from potato waste and tested the product for having the necessary mechanical, structural and therapeutic properties,” said one of the authors of the work, assistant at the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology of TMU Aferin Tagi kyzy Beylerli.
She explained that the antibacterial activity of the resulting nanoparticles was tested against antibiotic-resistant strains of Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, and Candida albicans (the causative agent of candidiasis, hospital-acquired infections, and immunodeficiency diseases).
The university noted that the resulting silver nanoparticles can be used not only for the production of drugs for treating people. Due to their low cost, they can also be used in agriculture to protect plants from bacterial and fungal diseases.
Recent Comments