Green Synthesis of Zn(OH)2/ZnO-Based Bionanocomposite using Pomegranate Peels and Its Application in the Degradation of Bacterial Biofilm

Shafiul Haque; Hani Faidah; Sami S Ashgar; Turki S Abujamel; Jawahir A Mokhtar; Mohammed Saad Almuhayawi; Steve Harakeh; Rajeev Singh; Neha Srivastava; Vijai Kumar Gupta

doi:10.3390/nano12193458

Green Synthesis of Zn(OH)₂/ZnO-Based Bionanocomposite using Pomegranate Peels and Its Application in the Degradation of Bacterial Biofilm

Nanomaterials (Basel). 2022 Oct 3;12(19):3458. doi: 10.3390/nano12193458.

Authors

Shafiul Haque¹, Hani Faidah², Sami S Ashgar², Turki S Abujamel^{3

4}, Jawahir A Mokhtar^{5

6}, Mohammed Saad Almuhayawi⁷, Steve Harakeh⁸, Rajeev Singh⁹, Neha Srivastava¹⁰, Vijai Kumar Gupta^{11

12}

Affiliations

¹ Research and Scientific Studies Unit, College of Nursing and Allied Health Sciences, Jazan University, Jazan 45142, Saudi Arabia.
² Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Umm Al-Qura University, Makkah 24382, Saudi Arabia.
³ Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahd Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁴ Department of Medical Laboratory Technology, Faculty of Applied Medical Sciences, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Vaccines and Immunotherapy Unit, King Fahad Medical Research Center, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Department of Medical Microbiology and Parasitology, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ King Fahd Medical Research Center, Yousef Abdullatif Jameel Chair of Prophetic Medicine Application, Faculty of Medicine, King Abdulaziz University, Jeddah 21589, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Department of Environmental Studies, Satyawati College, University of Delhi, Delhi 110052, India.
¹⁰ Department of Chemical Engineering and Technology, Indian Institute of Technology (BHU), Varanasi 221005, India.
¹¹ Biorefining and Advanced Materials Research Center, SRUC, Kings Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK.
¹² Center for Safe and Improved Food, SRUC, Kings Buildings, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, UK.

Abstract

The ability and potency of bacterial species to form biofilms, which show antibiotic resistance thereby avoiding antibiotic surfaces, is a major cause of prolonged infections. Various advanced approaches have been employed to prevent or damage bacterial biofilms, formed by a variety of bacterial strains, to help prevent the associated infectious disease. In this context, zinc-based nanostructures have been recognized as a potential antibiotic agent against a broad spectrum of bacterial communities. As a result, a sustainable and green synthesis method was adapted in the present study to synthesize a Zn(OH)₂/ZnO-based bionanocomposite, in which aqueous extracts of waste pomegranate peels (Punica granatum) were employed as a natural bioreducing agent to prepare the bionanocomposite at room temperature. Furthermore, FT-IR, XRD, DLS, UV-Visible, PL spectroscopy, FE-SEM, and TEM were used to characterize the green route synthesized a Zn(OH)₂/ZnO bionanocomposite. The average crystallite size was determined using the Scherrer relation to be 38 nm, and the DLS results indicated that the Zn(OH)₂/ZnO bionanocomposite had a hydrodynamic size of 170 nm. On the other hand, optical properties investigated through UV-Vis and PL spectroscopy explored the energy bandgap between 2.80 and 4.46 eV, corresponding to the three absorption edges, and it covered the blue spectrum when the sample was excited at 370 nm. Furthermore, the impact of this green route synthesized a Zn(OH)₂/ZnO bionanocomposite on the biofilm degradation efficiency of the pathogenic bacterial strain Bacillus subtilis PF_1 using the Congored method was investigated. The Congored assay clearly explored the biofilm degradation efficiency in the presence of a 50 mg/mL and 75 mg/mL concentration of the Zn(OH)₂/ZnO bionanocomposite against the bacterial strain Bacillus subtilis PF_1 grown for 24 h. This study can be further applied to the preparation of bionanocomposites following a low-cost green synthesis approach, and thus prepared nanostructures can be exploited as advanced antimicrobial agents, which could be of great interest to prevent various infectious diseases.

Keywords: bacterial biofilm degradation; food waste; green synthesis; nanomaterials; zin oxide-based nanostructure.

Grants and funding

This research work was funded by the Institutional Fund Projects under grant no. (IFPDP-102-22). Therefore, authors gratefully acknowledge technical and financial support from Ministry of Education and King Abdulaziz University, Deanship of Scientific Research, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.