Terminalia belerica Mediated Green Synthesis of Nanoparticles of Copper, Iron and Zinc Metal Oxides as the Alternate Antibacterial Agents Against some Common Pathogens

The present work aims at the green synthesis of metal oxides of zinc, iron, and copper using the aqueous extract of Terminalia belerica as a reductant and stabilizer. The entire reaction process was simple, cost-effective, and convenient to handle without use of any other stabilizing or reducing agents. The successful formation of the metal oxide nanoparticles was confirmed by UV-vis spectroscopy. For thus-prepared nanoparticles were characterized, a series of techniques were employed including Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction spectroscopy, high-resolution transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. We used these nanoparticles to demonstrate their antibacterial efficacy against some common standard bacterial pathogens including Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC-6538), Bacillus subtilis (MTCC-441), Escherichia coli (ATCC-8739), Klebsiella pneumoniae (ATCC-43816), and Salmonella enterica (MTCC-3858). The results indicate that these metal oxide nanoparticles may become a potential candidate for use in biological and pharmaceutical areas to fight against multi-drug resistant superbugs.