Phyto-mediated synthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles of Berberis aristata: Characterization, antioxidant activity and antibacterial activity with special reference to urinary tract pathogens

The field of nanoscience or nanotechnology is gaining popularity day by day and it is now well established field of interdisciplinary sciences. Nanoparticles are synthesized by various methods but suffer from few limitations such as toxicity. To overcome the limitations of various synthesis methods, the focus has shifted to new radius which involves biological organisms such as plants i.e. green synthesis. This phyto-mediated approach using various plant parts and extracts thereof, is considered to be new, simple and cheaper strategy to synthesize metal nanoparticles. In the present work, we describe a simple, eco-friendly and low-cost procedure for biosynthesis of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) using leaf extract of medicinally important plant, Berberis aristata. The synthesized zinc oxide nanoparticles was subsequently characterized by using UV Visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis (EDX) and Dynamic Light Scattering (DLS) which proved the synthesized ZnO NPs to fall in the range of nanoparticles. Synthesized ZnO NPs were further characterized and screened for antimicrobial and antioxidant activity. ZnO NPs displayed antibacterial activities against Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Bacillus subtilis, Bacillus cereus, Serratia marcescens but not for Proteus and Salmonella Typhi. ZnO NPs displayed antibacterial activities and moderate antioxidant potential. Our results display the synthesized ZnO NPs to fall in an important class of potential antibacterial, antioxidant agents and effective against urinary tract infections.