Investigating Biological Properties of Zinc Oxide/Curcumin Nanocomposites Synthesized from Stachys byzantina Extract by Green Synthesis

Aim and objective: Nanotechnology attempts to solve the problem of antibiotic resistance. Zinc oxide nanoparticles and curcumin have been shown to be antimicrobial agents and promising anticancer agents, both on their own as well as in combination, and this incorporation will likely improve these properties via a possible additive effect.

Materials and methods: In this study, the synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles was done by the distilled extract of Stachys byzantina via the co-precipitation method, which is an economical and eco-friendly green synthesis method. Then, curcumin was loaded to zinc oxide nanoparticles. Antibacterial efficacy of the synthesized nanoparticles was evaluated against five intracellular bacteria; moreover, cytotoxicity was evaluated on breast cancer cells.

Results: To confirm the synthesis and characterization of the nanoparticles, some techniques, such as XRD, FTIR, FESEM, and EDX were used. In addition, the antimicrobial activity of biosynthetic zinc oxide/curcumin nanocomposites was evaluated against selected bacterial strains. The uniform spherical nature of the zinc oxide nanoparticles was observed in the FESEM images, with the particle sizes ranging from 20 to 40 nm. The EDX spectrum showed the presence of C, O, and Zn and curcumin uptake on zinc oxide nanoparticles.

Conclusion: The zinc oxide/curcumin nanocomposites demonstrated an effective antibacterial effect in the disk diffusion method against five bacterial species. Furthermore, the zinc oxide/ curcumin nanocomposites showed a significant inhibitory effect on the growth of breast cancer cells in the MTT test. Thus, it seems that the synthesized zinc oxide/curcumin nanocomposites have promising high potential antimicrobial and cytotoxic effects.