Characterization of titanium dioxide nanomaterials synthesized from leaf extract of Pogostemon cablin Benth and their potential antifungal activity

Abstract

Recently, dermal infections caused by fungus have increased drastically, affecting people’s daily lives and causing embarrassment. These infections are either due to dermatophytes or non-dermatophytic fungi. Basically, three genera of dermatophytes namely Trichophyton, Microsporum and Epidermohyton are the main cause of dermatophytosis. Candida albicans is also responsible for some dermal infections as a non-dermatophytic fungus. Traditional antifungal compounds cause side effects and resistance in fungi, so better and non-toxic alternatives are needed. Now a day’s, nanotechnology is widely used in the pharmaceutical field and has proven to be a good antifungal agent. This study used TiO2 nanoparticles (NPs) against four human pathogens Trichophyton rubrum, Trichophyton mentagrophytes, Microsporum gypseum, and Candida albicans. Green and chemical synthesis methods were used for the synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles. In green synthesis, we used aqueous leaf extract of Pogostemon cablin Benth. The formation of TiO2 nanoparticles is confirmed by UV-visible spectroscopy, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and X-ray Diffraction (XRD) analysis. According to XRD, the average size of chemically synthesized nanoparticles was 70.52 nm, while green synthesized nanoparticles were 71.82 nm. All the characterizations support that Pogostemon cablin aqueous extract can synthesize TiO2 nanoparticles. The minimum inhibitory concentration was determined according to the broth microdilution recommended assay. This study concluded that green synthesized TiO2 NPs showed good results against all four pathogens.