Biosynthesis of Metallic Nanoparticles and Their Applications - Intracellular Delivery: Fundamentals and Applications - page 393

qualities of biogenic AgNPs was confirmed in water containing aforementioned
bacteriophage UZ1 (bacteriophage specific for common pathogenic bacterium
Enterobacter aerogenes ) and murine norovirus 1 (a model organism for human noro-
viruses). For continuous disinfection capability in water environment, the biogenic
material was applied to electropositive filter (NanoCeram) and exhibited higher anti-
viral activity in comparison with the results obtained with the original filter.

3.4.4 Antibacterial Fabrics and Cloth

Another interesting utilization for biosynthesized NPs is immobilization on cotton
cloth or cotton fibers. This approach demonstrates the possible use of such cloth in
disinfection or sterilization.
As the first record, Durán et al. ( 2007 ) reported the extracellular production of
AgNPs by fungus Fusarium oxysporum and antimicrobial effect of the NPs incor-
porated in cotton fabrics against Staphylococcus aureus . Moreover, effluent from
impregnated fabrics (after several washing cycles) was treated with the suspension
of Chromobacterium violaceum , metal binding bacteria, to reabsorb released NPs.
Using a similar procedure and organism, fungi Fusarium solani , El-Rafie et al.
( 2010 ) prepared AgNPs and applied them to cotton fabrics with and without binder.
The bleached cotton fabrics were padded through silver colloidal bath and squeezed
with laboratory padder. Following the incorporation of a binder, after 20 washing
cycles the material still exhibited effectiveness in antibacterial activity against
Staphylococcus aureus and E. coli .
Azadirachta indica (Neem) is genus from mahogany family Meliaceae . Tripathi
et al. ( 2009 ), studied the biosynthetic production of AgNPs by aqueous extract of
Neem leaves and their immobilization on cotton cloth. Subsequently, utilizing stan-
dard disk method (including effect of consecutive washing in distilled water), their
bactericidal effect against E. coli was observed. NP incorporation into cotton disks
was performed by three approaches: (a) centrifuging the disks with liquid extract
containing biosynthesized NPs; (b) in-situ coating process during synthesis, and (c)
coating with dried and purified NPs. Antibacterial effect against E. coli BL-21
strain was also tested with AgNPs prepared by means of phyto-reductive extract
and powder of Cinnamon zeylanicum (Sathishkumar et al. 2009 ) and Curcuma
longa tuber (Sathishkumar et al. 2010b ). The second work presents immobilization
of AgNPs on cotton cloth. NPs were resuspended in water or polyvinylidene fluo-
ride (PVDF) and sprayed over the pre-sterilized white cotton cloth in aseptic condi-
tion. PVDF immobilized cloth exhibited less antibacterial activity. However,
consecutive washing drastically reduced antibacterial effectiveness of AgNPs
immobilized in sterile water.
Topic of antibacterial NP containing cloth can be very promising for biofabrica-
tion approach and whole of nanotechnology. For further reading see following
reviews: Dastjerdi and Montazer ( 2010 ), Perelshtein et al. ( 2008 ), Simoncic and
Tomsic ( 2010 ).