Curcumin assisted green synthesis of silver and zinc oxide nanostructures and their antibacterial activity against some clinical pathogenic multi-drug resistant bacteria.

According to WHO warnings, the antibiotic resistance crisis is a severe health issue in the 21st century, attributed to the overuse and misuse of these medications. Consequently, the dramatic spreading rate of the drug-resistant microbial pathogens strains. The microbiological, biochemical tests and antibiotic sensitivity identified the bacteria's multi-drug resistance (MDR). About 150 different clinical samples were taken from hospitalized patients, both males, and females, ranging from 9 to 68 years. Gram-negative strains were (70.0%), while Gram-positive isolates were (30.0%). Among sixteen antibiotics, antibiotic susceptibility of imipenem was found to be the most efficient drug against most of the Gram-negative and Gram-positive isolates, followed by meropenem, depending on the culture and sensitivity results. All the experimental bacteria showed multidrug-resistant phenomena. In this study, green synthesized silver (Cur-Ag NPs) and zinc oxide (Cur-ZnO NPs) nanoparticles in the presence of curcumin extract. In addition, their physicochemical properties have been characterized using different techniques such as UV-Vis spectroscopy, transmission electron microscope (TEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared (FT-IR), and colloidal properties techniques. Furthermore, curcumin-capped silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) exhibited solid antimicrobial action against the experimental bacterial isolates, except . Curcumin-capped zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) found antimicrobial activity against all tested strains. Finally, the minimum inhibitory concentration exhibited values from 3.9 to 15.6 μg ml, which is too small compared to other traditional antibiotics. In addition, the green-synthesized Cur-Ag NPs and Cur-ZnO NPs showed good biocompatibility.