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Biosynthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles using Rubia cordifolia bark extract: characterization, antibacterial, antioxidant, larvicidal and photocatalytic activities

  • Recent Trends on Sustainable Agriculture through Environmental Friendly Pesticides: An Ecological Conservation Approach
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Abstract

Rubia cordifolia represents the pivotal plant resource belonging to traditional Chinese medicine and Indian Ayurveda. The present study aims to synthesize biocompatible copper oxide nanoparticles (CuONPs) using R. cordifolia bark extracts, characterize the incumbent chemical transitions, and explore their biomedical and environmental applications. The absorbance peak between 250 and 300 nm clearly demonstrates the formation of CuONPs in the UV–visible spectrum. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results showed the presence of functional groups essential for copper ion reduction. Field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and dynamic light scattering analysis revealed that the CuONPs are spherical-shaped with a mean particle size of 50.72 nm. Additionally, the zeta potential demonstrates its robustness at 11.2 mV. X-ray diffraction pattern showed mixed phases (Cu, Cu2O, and CuO) of cubic monoclinic crystalline nature. CuONPs exhibited noticeable antibacterial activity against Gram-negative (Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and Gram-positive (Staphylococcus aureus and Bacillus cereus) pathogenic bacteria. Bacterial cell damages were affirmed through FE-SEM imaging when treated with CuONPs. Further, CuONPs demonstrated considerable antioxidant activities by quenching free radicals such as DPPH (60.75%), ABTs (70.88%), nitric oxide (65.48%) and reducing power (71.44%) in a dose-dependent way. CuONPs showed significant larvicidal activity against Aedes aegypti (65 ± 8.66%), Anopheles stephensi (80 ± 13.69%), and Culex quinquefasciatus (72 ± 13.04%) mosquito larvae. The photocatalytic activity of the CuONPs demonstrates the methylene blue (81.84%) and crystal violet (64.0%) dye degradation potentials, indicating the environmental bioremediation efficacy. Hence the present study is the first report in accounting for the versatile applications of the phyto-CuONPs. Moreover, the green synthesis of CuONPS has future applications in designing the drug for life-threatening diseases and various environmental issues.

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Data Availability

All data generated and analyzed during this study are included in this article.

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Acknowledgements

The first author (A.V) is thankful for the Award of UGC-RGN Fellowship, Govt. of India and Postdoctoral Researcher at Jiangsu University, PR, China. The authors (A.V and Y.M) acknowledge the“Foreign Scientist Talented Project”awarded by the Ministry of Science and Technology, China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Food and Biological Engineering, Jiangsu University, 301 Xuefu Road, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Annadurai Vinothkanna & Yongkun Ma

  2. Department of Biotechnology, Bharathidasan University, Tiruchirappalli, 620 024, Tamil Nadu, India

    Annadurai Vinothkanna & Soundarapandian Sekar

  3. School of Minerals Processing and Bioengineering, Central South University, Changsha, Hunan, 410083, People’s Republic of China

    Krishnamurthy Mathivanan

  4. Sivan Bioscience Research and Training Laboratory, Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu, India

    Sivapunniyam Ananth

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  1. Annadurai Vinothkanna
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  4. Yongkun Ma
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Contributions

A. Vinothkanna: Conceptualization, Methodology, Formal analysis, Validation, Visualization, Writing-original draft. K. Mathivanan: Formal analysis and validation. S. Ananth: Formal analysis and validation Y. Ma: Project administration, Validation, Visualization, Writing-review and editing. S. Sekar: Conceptualization, Supervision, Project administration, Funding acquisition, Writing-review and editing.

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Correspondence to Yongkun Ma or Soundarapandian Sekar.

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Vinothkanna, A., Mathivanan, K., Ananth, S. et al. Biosynthesis of copper oxide nanoparticles using Rubia cordifolia bark extract: characterization, antibacterial, antioxidant, larvicidal and photocatalytic activities. Environ Sci Pollut Res 30, 42563–42574 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11356-022-18996-4

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