Malus pumila and Juglen regia plant species mediated zinc oxide nanoparticles: Synthesis, spectral characterization, antioxidant and antibacterial studies.

Zinc oxide nanoparticles derived from Malus pumila (apple) and Juglen regia (walnut) plant is an attractive area of research because of their widespread use. The use of plant material to synthesize zinc oxide nanoparticles has been considered as one of the best environmentally friendly approach. This method appears to be low-cost as compare to other conventional method of synthesis. The biosynthesized nanoparticles were characterized by Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-visible), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Attenuated total reflectance spectroscopy (ATR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), Transmission electron Microscopy (TEM) and Dynamic light scattering (DLS). The antioxidant potential has been evaluated by 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical (DPPH) assay using L-ascorbic acid as a standard. The antibacterial activity was measured by agar well diffusion method to measure the efficacy of plant species extract and extract mediated zinc oxide nanoparticles against 5 g positive bacteria namely Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), Streptococcus mutans (S. mutans), Streptococcus pyrogenes (S. pyrogenes), Corynebacterium diphtheriae (C. diphtheriae) and Corynebacterium xerosis (C. xerosis) and 3 g negative bacteria such as Escherichia coli (E. coli), Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumoniae) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) bacteria with standard antibiotic for gram positive (Ciprofloxacin) and gram negative bacteria (Gentamicin).