Recently, biological techniques for manufacturing nanoparticles, such as employing filamentous fungi to synthesize ZnO nanoparticles, have become environmentally friendly, bio congruous, and safe. This study aimed to look for Penicillium italicum [Filamentous Blue Mold (FiBM)] in rotting citrus fruits and exploit this in the biofabrication of ZnO nanoparticles. The study isolated 39 different filamentous mold samples and used conventional and molecular diagnosis. Only 11 (28%) of the isolates obtained contained Penicillium italicum, for which we investigated the capability of ZnO nanoparticles biosynthesis by fungal extracellular free-cells filtrate solution. The results showed that Penicillium italicum Pit-L6 was given the peak of ZnONps 378 nm detected by UV-visible spectrophotometry, and it considered significantly optimum strain in the highest quantity (mean±S.D) 0.015±0.002 gm/100 ml with small enough average nanoparticles size. The ZnONps were characterized by UV-visible scanning spectrophotometry, atomic force microscopy (AFM), X|-RD, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The final average ZnONps through 0f in all measuring devices ranged between 53.13-69.67 nm (with different shapes and dimensions). This study concluded that these fungi (FiBMs) are highly capable as eco-friendly and cheap bio-nano factories to manufacture ZnONps as alternative novel biological technology, in fine particles within average size at nano-level, as continuous renewable sources for producing nanoparticles, for different usage.
Keywords: Penicillium italicum Pit-L6; SEM; TEM; ZnONps; zincum gluconic.
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