Water soluble silver containing nanocomposites based on biocompatible polysaccharides, galactomannan and carrageenan, were synthesized for the first time. A complex of physico chemical methods was employed to establish the phase composition, the average size of metal nanoparticles, and the morphology of new nanobiocomposites. The obtained nanomaterials possess high antimicrobial activity.Despite continuous sophistication of antibiotics, they are yet insufficiently selective (i.e., have a wide range of action), toxic, and rapidly cause specific resistance in pathogenic and opportunistic microorganisms. 1 At the same time, preparations of highly dispersed silver are highly active antimicrobial agents known for many centuries. 2-5 The most important factor for the increasing biological activity of the silver preparations is the enhancement of their transmembrane permeability, 3 which makes it possible to substantially decrease the therapeutic dose and thus diminish the drug load on the organism. One of the prom ising methods of achieving transmembrane permeability can be the transformation of silver into the nanosized state with the simultaneous inclusion of silver nanoparticles into matrices of polysaccharides galactomannan and carrag eenan, which impart water solubility and higher biocom patibility to the constructed materials. The galactomannan macromolecules contain the α galactose residues performing membrane transport functions due to the high affinity to asialoglycoprotein receptors of the cell membranes. 6-9 Carrageenan has another valuable property, viz., the ability to form water retaining hydrogels, which is very important for the development of materials for wound coatings. 10 It is known that the choice of a stabilizer for thermo dynamically unstable nanoparticles formed is very signifi cant along with the choice of reactants in the syntheses of the nanocomposites. 11-17 . Compounds containing reduc tive and other polar groups (alcohols, aldehydes, saccha rides, polysaccharides, and others), which can simulta neously act as reducing agents and stabilizers of formed nanoparticles, are widely used in practice for this purpose. For example, natural galactose containing heteropolysac charide, viz., arabinogalactan, was successfully used 18-22 for the synthesis of related hybrid metal containing nano composites.The purpose of this work is the synthesis and study of the structure and antimicrobial properties of the hybrid nanocomposites based on biocompatible galactose con taining polysaccharides, viz., galactomannan and car rageenan.
Results and DiscussionWater soluble natural galactose containing polysac charides, galactomannan (2440 kDa) and carrageenan (1980 kDa), were used as stabilizing matrices for the prep aration of new silver containing nanocomposites. The ba sis of the galactomannan macromolecule 1 (see Ref. 23) is (1→4) β D mannopyranan, and α D galactopyranose res idues represent single side branches. The ratio Man : Gal