Research Article |
Corresponding author: Dhulfiqar Abed ( phar.dhoalfaqar.ali@uobabylon.edu.iq ) Academic editor: Plamen Peikov
© 2022 Saba Abdulmunem Habeeb, Asmaa H. Hammadi, Dhulfiqar Abed, Lena Fadhil Al-Jibouri.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Habeeb SA, Hammadi AH, Abed D, Al-Jibouri LF (2022) Green synthesis of metronidazole or clindamycin-loaded hexagonal zinc oxide nanoparticles from Ziziphus extracts and its antibacterial activity. Pharmacia 69(3): 855-864. https://doi.org/10.3897/pharmacia.69.e91057
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Green chemistry has become a fruitful approach for the synthesis of semiconductors and nanoparticles with various applications. Herein, we synthesized ZnO hexagonal nanoparticles (HNPs) by green precipitation method using fresh local Ziziphus leaf extract (Rhamnaceae) with a heating range of 60–80 in an alkaline medium. It was calcinated on a furnace at 500 °C for 2 h. to get a very fine and homogeneous pale-yellow powder which is then loaded with either metronidazole or clindamycin. The physical characterizations of the particles’ morphology, size, and purity were measured using the Scanning electron microscope, UV-spectroscopy, and the Fourier transform infrared spectroscope. The size of ZnO nanoparticles (44.63 nm) was measured using scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and the mean crystal size of the precursor (17.37 nm) was measured using X-ray diffraction methods (XRD). The antibacterial activity of these particles was measured against Staphylococcus aureus bacterial strains and analyzed using a “well-diffusion technique” which revealed that metronidazole or clindamycin-containing ZnO nanoparticles showed good bactericidal activity.
Keywords
ZnO (HNPs), GS, Ziziphus leaf extract, drug delivery, Antibacterial activity
Nanotechnology is an emergent new research field that deals with the synthesis of nanostructures and nanoparticles (NPs) and their use in numerous fields including pharmaceutics, electrical chemistry, biomedical technologies, catalysis, makeups, sensors, nutrition technology, health care, fabric industry, mechanics, physical optics, microelectronics, space engineering, and energy discipline, etc. (
The antibacterial effects of ZnO NPs may be due to the intrinsic toxicity of metal particles. The loss of bacterial integrity may be related to the interaction between the cell wall and the ZnO NPs. Furthermore, ZnO NPs can cause environmental changes in the bacteria, (ROS production) which can induce cellular damage (
Osteomyelitis is a multi-bacterial infection and in around 80% of cases caused by S. aureus bacteria. The present surgical therapy of osteomyelitis is a combination of antibiotics and bone cement that is set in into the site of bone marrow infection. Nevertheless, inadequate drugs exist to treat antimicrobial-resistant strains. Thus, drug companies have tried to develop recent antibacterial agents (
It is one of the Iraqi perennial spikey plants, and it distributes from the central to the south of Iraq because of the increased temperature and moisture (
Zinc nitrate ZnNO3, 6(H2O), NaOH, and ethanol utilized in the study were of the analytical score and were provided from the markets. Clindamycin and metronidazole were purchased from Wuhan Fortuna Chemical Co. (China). All glassware was cleaned with sterilized distilled water (DW) and then dried out in an electrical oven before its use.
Fifty grams of fresh Ziziphus buckthorn leaves were collected and then washed away with tap water and then with deionized water frequently to get rid of dust and impurities, and the leaves were let dry in the air while maintaining the freshness of the leaves. Then, after adding 500 cc deionized water, the leaves were crushed with a high-speed blender, and then the solution was filtered using filter papers several to separate the leaf residues from the extract. The extract is a homogeneous dark green solution that is denser than water, free of sediment, and kept at 4 °C until compound fabrication.
About 200 g of prepared plant extract (B) was taken to heat at 60–80 °C on a hot plate with stirring for 2 hours, and then 10 gm of zinc nitrate was added to the hot solution with rapid and stable stirring. Once the zinc nitrate was completely dissolved, a few drops of sodium hydroxide was added to maintain the basic condition. The mixture was stirred at room temperature for about eight hours until the greenish liquid slowly started to fade with the appearance of yellow-colored suspension followed by the formation of a pale-yellow precipitate. The precipitate was collected with filter paper and cleaned with tap water and ethanol to eliminate insoluble zinc nitrate and other impurities. The precipitate was dried in an oven for about 12 hrs at 80 °C, and lastly calcining for 2 hrs at 500 °C ovens. The steps used for the synthesis of hexagonal Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles (ZnO-HNPs) are illustrated schematically in Fig.
To load the drug into hexagonal ZnO-nanostructures, zinc oxide (HNPs) was dissolved in solutions of 100 milliliters of DW at three concentrations (0.1, 0.5, and 1%). Then, 40 mg of either clindamycin or metronidazole was added to the three solutions before stirring by a magnetic stirrer at 600 rpm for a minimum of five hours at room temperature. At that point, the solutions were left overnight, and then centrifugated at 5×103 rpm for 10 minutes to get yellow precipitate. (
The fresh Ziziphus leaf was obtained from the garden of Al-Hilla city. To investigate the antibacterial efficacy of gram-positive S. aureus and gram-negative P. aeruginosa, “the agar well diffusion” technique was selected, and cultured in a media of nutrient agar. After 24 hours, one hundred microliters of old mature cultured media were swabbed using the L-shaped rod on the medium. The wells were made with a sterile cork tool (6 mm). In current study, ZnO-HNPs concentrations in triplicate had been used (0.1%, 0.5% and 1%). Each concentration was utilized separately with metronidazole or with clindamycin. “Zone of inhibition” (ZOI) was calculated in millimeters. In each Petri dish, three wells were prepared and fifty µl of each specified concentration was added individually (
3.1.1. SEM
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
The crystalline character of ZnO-NPs was measured by XRD and the pattern displays peaks at “[31.6, 34.2, 36.2, 47.35, 56.41,62.55, 66.17, 67.71, 68.96, 72.3, and 77.78°]” similar to lattice planes “[(100), (002), (101), (102), (110), (103), (200), (112), (201), (004) and (202)]”, respectively. No XRD peaks associated with impurities and/or any intermediary ingredients were detected, which further indicates the purity of synthesized ZnO hexagons powder (
D = (0.89 λ) / (β cos θ)
The spectrophotometric absorptive pattern normally depends on the variables like the temperature, size, and shapes of the synthesized nanostructures (
The ZnO-HNPs FTIR spectrum lies in the range of 4000–400 cm−1 and was presented in Fig.
Fig.
Fig.
Figs
The antibacterial activity of ZnO-HNPs was measured in triplicate (1, 0.5, and 0.1%) toward gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria using the “agar well diffusion technique” as we can see in Figs
The diameter of ZnO-HNPs inhibition zone of metronidazole, and metronidazole/ZnO-HNPs against S. aureus and P. aeruginosa bacteria.
Sample | Diameter of inhibition zone (mm) | |
---|---|---|
Staphylococcus aureus | Pseudomonas aeruginosa | |
A1 | 0 | 0 |
A2 | 10 | 0 |
A3 | 12 | 0 |
A5 | 15 | 0 |
A9 | 20 | 0 |
A10 | 25 | 0 |
A11 | 20 | 0 |
Diameter of inhibition zone by ZnO-HNPs, clindamycin, and clindamycin /ZnO-HNPs against Staphylococcus aureus, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.
Sample | diameter inhibition Zone in mm | |
---|---|---|
Staphylococcus aureus | Pseudomonas aeruginosa | |
A1 | 0 | 0 |
A2 | 10 | 0 |
A3 | 12 | 0 |
A4 | 15 | 0 |
A6 | 30 | 0 |
A7 | 35 | 0 |
A8 | 38 | 0 |
Antibacterial action of ZnO-HNPs was examined against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and S. aureus bacterial strains. Drug loaded ZnO-HNPs were shown to be more active against S. aureus (Figs
The possible mechanism of the ZnO-NP antibacterial activity depends on the rough external texture of ZnO-HNPs that bind with the bacterial exterior because of the electric forces, which kill bacteria directly. Smaller particulate size offers quite greater surface area and high quantity of Zn atoms that induce toxic effects of ZnO against the bacteria as shown in Fig.
Bacterial resistance is a foremost issue that remains a difficulty in all healthcare systems of developing and developed nations. Recent bacterial treatment has been affected by the increase and propagation of multidrug-resistant pathogens. The use of plant-mediated nanomaterials as a new source of antimicrobials was considered since they have a diversity of active mixtures with proven beneficial features (
In the current study, green synthesis approaches for producing metallic NPs have become a valuable development. The usage of phytochemicals from plant extract has become more popular in NPs synthesis, owing to the dual advantages of phytochemicals as reducing and capping agents to the NPs. Zinc oxide NPs in the current study were produced from a common medicinal plant and their antibacterial activity was measured against gram-positive and negative strains.
The green precipitation technique was utilized for the synthesis of ZnO-HNPs using fresh “Ziziphus leaf extract” from local gardens. Results from X-ray diffraction indicate the formation of high crystallinity hexagonal ZnO nanostructure. The actual mean size distribution of NPs was 44.63 nm as measured by SEM.
Various ZnO-HNP formulations have been developed as an alternative drug delivery approach to treat bacterial infections. Hence, ZnO-HNPs can be utilized for the controlled delivery of clindamycin or metronidazole. The current study was performed on both gram-positive and negative bacteria and the antibacterial activity increases with increased drug loading. The diameter of the inhibition zone by loading clindamycin/ZnO-HNPs was 30, 35, and 38 mm. While the diameter of the inhibition zone by loading metronidazole/ZnO- HNPs was 20, and 25 mm. The antibacterial efficacy of clindamycin or metronidazole-loaded ZnO-HNPs was non significant against P. aeruginosa.