In this study, we have demonstrates that nitrogen-plasma-treated g-C3N4 nanosheet exhibits excellent and broad-spectrum antibacterial activity against eight foodborne pathogens in the absence of light illumination.
Artemisinin has excellent antimalarial, antiparasitic,
and antibacterial
activities; however, the poor water solubility of artemisinin crystal
limits their application in antibiosis. Herein, artemisinin crystal
was first composited with silica nanoparticles (SNPs) to form an artemisinin@silica
nanoparticle (A@SNP). After treating with nitrogen plasma, the aqueous
solubility of plasma-treated A@SNP (A@SNP-p) approaches 42.26%, which
is possibly attributed to the exposure of hydrophilic groups such
as −OH groups on the SNPs during the plasma process. Compared
with the pristine A@SNP, the antibacterial activity of A@SNP-p against
both Gram-positive and Gram-negative strains is further enhanced,
and its bactericidal rate against both strains exceeded 6 log CFU/mL
(>99.9999%), which is contributed by the increased water solubility
of the A@SNP-p. A possible multipathway antibacterial mechanism of
A@SNP was proposed and preliminarily proved by the changes of intracellular
materials of bacteria and the inhibition of bacterial metabolism processes,
including the HMP pathway in Gram-negative strain and EMP pathway
in Gram-positive strain, after treating with A@SNP-p. These findings
from the present work will provide a new view for fabricating artemisinin-based
materials as antibiotics.
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