Comparative Antimicrobial Analysis of Chitosan Nanoparticles With Gentamicin And Chloramphenicol

What is it about?

Chitosan has attained increasing commercial interest as suitable resource material due to its excellent properties including biocompatibility, biodegradability, adsorption and ability to form films and to chelate metal ions. Antibiotic resistance has become rampant and nanoparticles are increasingly used to target microorganisms as an alternative to antibiotics. The research was conducted to produce and synthesize nanoparticles using the extract of chitosan and test the antimicrobial activity against some selected bacteria. Chitosan was produced by demineralization, deproteinization and deacetylation of oyster shell. The silver nanoparticle was synthesized from Chitosan and screened for in vitro antimicrobial activity against selected bacteria using the agar well diffusion method. Synthesized nanoparticles were characterized using UV-VIS spectrophotometry, FTIR spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy. Chitosan nanoparticles showed some inhibiting properties against the growth of most of the organisms tested (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Salmonella typhi). Most of the isolates were inhibited by both extracts. The positive control which was chloramphenicol and gentamycin inhibited the growth of all organisms except Salmonella typhi.

Featured Image

Why is it important?

Chitin and chitosan extracted from shrimp waste by chemical methods have been characterized in this investigation. Among the treatments used in the study, 3% HCI and 4% NaOH were used successfully to extract chitin. Although 60% NaOH treatment yields the highest deacetylated chitosan with maximum solubility, 50% NaOH treatment could be used to get high-quality chitosan of 79.57% degree of deacetylation and 97.02% solubility with minimum chemical utilization. Synthesized Chitosan nanoparticles showed some inhibitory activities against two out of the three Gram-negative bacteria used in this study, indicating that chitosan nanoparticles are a good candidate for eco-friendly antibacterial production.