Exploring the eco-friendly future of antibiotic particles

Goji berries are a ubiquitous superfood known for a multitude of health benefits, including their antibiotic properties. In research published in AIP Advances, by AIP Publishing, researcher Kamran Alam from Sapienza University of Rome along with others from NED University of Engineering and Technology and King Saud University found an effective way to harvest silver nanoparticles from these berries.

"Silver nanoparticles are responsible for disrupting the cell membrane structure, which can generate reactive oxygen species used for inhibiting bacterial growth," explained Alam.

Silver nanoparticles can be generated using a number of chemical techniques, but green solutions that use biological sources like fruit or leaf extracts are preferred because they save on energy and are nontoxic, nonhazardous, and biologically compatible with humans.

In this interdisciplinary undertaking, Alam and researchers demonstrated a technique for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles using store-bought goji berries.

"Goji berries are easily and locally available in the botanic garden and are rich in bioactive compounds that have natural reducing and stabilizing agents, eliminating the need for additional capping agents during processing," Alam said.

Alam and the team created silver nanoparticles by drying, grinding, and then filtering the goji berries to create an extract. Then, they added chemical silver nitrate (AgNO3) and reduced the solution.

Using visualization techniques such as X-ray diffraction, Ultraviolet-Visible (UV-Vis) Spectroscopy, and Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) Spectroscopy, the team confirmed the presence of silver nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were also viewed under a microscope and tested for their antimicrobial activity against Staphylococcus aureus, a gram-positive bacterium that causes staph infections among other diseases.

In the future, Alam plans to study the cellular toxicity and biocompatibility of the nanoparticles synthesized from these berries, which could positively contribute to biomedical research.

"This is a simple and straightforward synthesis method which does not need additional chemicals or complex equipment and can be scaled up for industrial applications," he said.