Synthesis Of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles With Piper Betle Leaf Extract

INTRODUCTION

Nanotechnology has become a high demand among pharmaceutical industries as well as in healthcare settings. Nanotechnology is defined as a branch of technology that deals with manipulation of matter at a nanoscale. It was being used widely in industrial and healthcare application including diagnostic purpose, drug delivery system and therapeutic management. Despite their small size which is less than 100nm in diameter, nanoparticles is economical and eco-friendly substances which do not give harm to the human body. The synthesis of nanoparticles has a great interest in the research fields since it is small, cheap, stable, easily available and nontoxic material. Iron oxide nanoparticles that consist of maghemite and magnetite particles have attracted extensive interest due to their potential biomedical application in many fields such as drug delivery, gene therapy, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), cancer treatment, in-vitro diagnostics and vaccine production.

Regarding to its biocompatibility and nontoxicity, this green synthesis will be able to be an alternative way for traditional chemical method in production of metallic nanomaterials (Veeramanikandan, 2017). As for now, bacteria resistance is a serious clinical dilemma, so different antimicrobial activities were performed using plants as a source with the hope that it can substitute as antibacterial agents (Tayyaba, 2014). Amutha, 2018 reported that iron oxide nanoparticles has been synthesized from Glycosmis mauritiana leaf extract and it shows that the particles exhibited an effective antibacterial activity against the tested pathogen. The antioxidant activity through iron oxide nanoparticles also has been reported by using gallic acid. It was measured by DPPH (2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) where the prepared iron oxide nanoparticles are hydrophilic and exhibited greater antioxidant activity and degraded the DPPH radicals efficiently (Syed Tawab Shah, 2017) Piper betle is a belonging to Piperaceae family which mostly available in Asia including Malaysia. In Malaysia, Piper betle leaf or known as daun sireh are widely used as masticatory among the ancestors.

Usually, they wrapped the betel leaf together with the areca nut, catechu, lime and tobacco. This traditional plant are mainly used as mouth freshener and also believed that it can cure cough, bronchial asthma, constipation, bad breath, and swelling of gums. The heart-shaped of Piper betle leaves are magnificent reservoirs of phenolic compound that possess anti-bacterial, anti-protozoan and anti-fungal properties (Suryasnata, 2016). Thus, the study aims to synthesis iron oxide nanoparticles using Piper betle leaf extract. The produced iron oxide nanoparticles were further characterized by using UV-Vis spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy, SEM and TEM analysis. The antibacterial activity against the pathogen were tested and also the nanoparticles were expected to have an antioxidant activity through free radical scavenging effect.

PROBLEM STATEMENT

Bacterial resistance has become one of the challenging issues in health care settings. This situation is quite worrying because the bacteria are able to defeat the drugs and change the effectiveness of the drugs. Antibiotic is one of the important drugs as it helps to prevent bacterial infection in the body. Apart from that, exposure of free radicals from the environmental pollutant is quite harmful because it may lead to cell damage and can cause illness and aging. Therefore, antioxidant is used in order to neutralize the free radicals by inhibit the oxidation process. Thus, this study is conducted to synthesize iron oxide nanoparticles from Piper Betle leaves as nanoparticle is cost-effective and safe to be used. This study is also designed to determine its antibacterial against pathogen and antioxidants activity.

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE

General Objective

The general objective for this study is to carried out the biosynthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles using Piper Betle leaves extracts and proves that it has a good antibacterial activity which can help to impede the bacterial resistance and also determine its antioxidant activity through the presence of phenolic compound.

Specific Objectives

a) To collect Piper Betle leaves from Ipoh, Perak.

b) To synthesize iron oxide nanoparticles using Piper Betle leaf extract.

c) To characterize iron oxide nanoparticles by using UV-Visible spectroscopy, FT-IR spectroscopy and TEM analysis.

d) To determine the antibacterial property of iron oxide nanoparticles against bacterial pathogen.

e) To discover the antioxidant activity of iron oxide nanoparticles in Piper Betle leaf through the presence of phenolic compound.

RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

a) Iron oxide nanoparticles from Piper Betle leaf extract shows an excellent antibacterial activity against bacterial pathogen.

b) The plant extract gives a good antioxidant properties through free radical scavenging effect.

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY

The significance of this findings may help in contribution of nanoparticle studies for Piper Betle leaves and production of zinc oxide nanoparticle from the extract. This may be a driving force for the development of better health management and care since it is economical and eco-friendly substances. It also can be used as substitution for the resistant antibiotic whereas through the study of antioxidant activity, it can be one of the alternative ways in cancer and cardiovascular disease prevention.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Matheswaran B. et. al. (2014) has reported the synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles using an aqueous Eucalyptus globulus leaf extract as both the reducing and capping agent. The synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Vis spectrum, XRD, TEM, SEM and FT-IR. The UV-Vis spectrum shows an absorption maximum (λmax) peak around 402 nm indicating the formation of low dimensional β-Fe2O3. The structural characterization of the material was performed using XRD analysis where the sample showed a major characteristic peaks for prepared crystalline metallic nanoparticles at 24. 2˚, 33. 1˚, 35. 7˚, 40. 9˚, 49. 4 ˚, 54. 1˚, 57. 6˚, 62. 6˚ and 64. 0˚ which is corresponding to its rhombohedral geometry structure. TEM image reveal that the β-Fe2O3 nanoparticles have the average core diameter of 100nm and the nanoparticles are agglomerate and cluster in order to minimize the surface energies. For FT-IR spectrum.

It displays three strong bands around 3449 cm-1 (H2O stretching), 1637 cm-1 (H2O bending variation) and 544 cm-1 (Fe-O stretching). Veeramanikandan V. et. al. (2017) has reported an eco-frinedly green synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles using leaf extract of Leucas aspera. The synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles were effectively utilized for the antibacterial activity and antioxidant studies. Preliminary phytochemical analysis for Leucas aspera leaf extract was done in order to detect the bioactive constituents. The antibacterial properties of iron oxide nanoparticles were evaluated against gram-positive and gram-negative bacterial strains using agar well diffusion method.

The maximum zone of inhibition was found to be high in gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus and Listeria monocytogens) compared to gram-negative bacteria (Klebsiella pneumoniae, Proteus mirabilis, Vibrio cholera and Pseudomonas aeuroginosa). The presence of organic molecule on the surface of iron oxide nanoparticles has influence the FT-IR peaks. The vibration bands are at 615 cm-1(Fe-O stretching), 1632 cm-1 (H2O bending vibration) and a broad peak at 3424 1632 cm-1 (H2O stretching) indicating phenolic compounds. Amutha S. and Sridhar S. (2018) has reported that the potential effect of Glycosmis mauritiana leaf extract for the formation of iron oxide nanoparticles and its application on antibacterial activity.

The prepared iron oxide nanoparticles has the absorption peak at 404nm, spherical shaped and average size of particle is found to be below 100nm that characterized by using UV-Vis spectrometry, SEM, TEM and DLS analysis. It also has a good antibacterial activity against the bacterial pathogens. The inhibition activity of iron oxide nanoparticles were compared with standard antibiotic Norfloxacin. The maximum antibacterial activity was observed at 30μg/disc concentration of iron oxide particles. Kanagasubbulakshmi S. and Kadirvelu K. (2017) had conducted a study of Lagenaria siceraria leaves extract that found to be capable in green synthesis iron oxide nanoparticles and their characteristics. The synthesized Fe3O4-NP were naturally stabilized, cubic shaped and in the size range of 30 nm to 100 nm.

The phytochemical present in the leaf can serve both as effective metal-reducing agents and as capping agents to provide a robust coating on the metal nanoparticles in a single step and lead to changes of yellowish brown to brownish black. This gave the confirmation of synthesis of Fe3O4-NP. The functional groups present on the NPs are mainly –OH and –COOH through FT-IR analysis makes it hydrophilic compound. The antimicrobial property of synthesized Fe3O4-NP was evaluated against gram-negative (Escherchia coli) and gram-negative (Staphylococcus aureus) which compared to the standard antimicrobial, Ampicillin. The zone of inhibition was found to be 10 mm for E. coli and 8 mm for S. aureus.