Fractionation of Biomolecules in Withania coagulans Extract for Bioreductive Nanoparticle Synthesis, Antifungal and Biofilm Activity

Abstract

Withania coagulans contains a complex mixture of various bioactive compounds. In order to reduce the complexity of the plant extract to purify its phytochemical biomolecules, a novel fractionation strategy using different solvent combination ratios was applied to isolate twelve bioactive fractions. These fractions were tested for activity in the biogenic synthesis of cobalt oxide nanoparticles, biofilm and antifungal activities. The results revealed that plant extract with bioactive fractions in 30% ratio for all solvent combinations showed more potent bioreducing power, according to the observed color changes and the appearance of representative absorption peaks at 500–510 nm in the UV-visible spectra which confirm the synthesis of cobalt oxide nanoparticles (Co3O4 NPs). XRD diffraction was used to define the crystal structure, size and phase composition of the products. The fractions obtained using 90% methanol/hexane and 30% methanol/hexane showed more effectiveness against biofilm formation by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus so these fractions could potentially be used to treat bacterial infections. The 90% hexane/H2O fraction showed excellent antifungal activity against Aspergillus niger and Candida albicans, while the 70% methanol/hexane fraction showed good antifungal activity for C. albicans, so these fractions are potentially useful for the treatment of various fungal infections. On the whole it was concluded that fractionation based on effective combinations of methanol/hexane was useful to investigate and study bioactive compounds, and the active compounds from these fractions may be further purified and tested in various clinical trials.

Antioxidant Effect of Wheat Germ Extracts and Their Antilipidemic Effect in Palmitic Acid-Induced Steatosis in HepG2 and 3T3-L1 Cells

“…Raw WG was provided by Daehan Flour Mills Co., Ltd. (Incheon, Korea) and stored at −20 °C. Six different WGEs were prepared using different extraction methods: thermal, subcritical, and ultrasound-assisted water extractions and solvent extractions using acetone (50% v / v ), n-hexane (50% v / v; hexane), and ethanol (70% v / v ) [ 24 , 25 ]. The composition of the WG is shown in Table 1 .…”

Green approaches for the synthesis of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles using microbial and plant extracts

“…293,294 These specific biomolecules were recently isolated and utilized as reducing or stabilizing agents to improve nanoparticle formation efficiency 295,296 and enhance their stability through additional processes such as pH alteration or biotemplate incorporation. 297,298 It can be noted that genetically engineered microbes will be highly beneficial for producing these specific biomolecules and will help in the large-scale industrial and commercial production of nanoparticles, compared with the chemical synthesis approach. 299 Similarly, plant tissue culture along with a genetic engineering approach to produce transgenic plants will be useful to yield specific phytochemicals that can be extracted for the large-scale production of nanoparticles.…”

Phytotoxic Evaluation of Phytosynthesized Silver Nanoparticles on Lettuce

“…In addition, it has a fast growth rate which makes it easy to see the effects. There are many reports on physical and chemical methods of nanoparticles synthesis [23,24] but phytosynthesized nanoparticles and their impact on plants are rarely studied [25][26][27][28].…”