"Green" method to create antibacterial gold nanoparticles for potential medical use with the help of common eucalyptus leaves.
Murdoch University researchers have developed a green method to create antibacterial gold nanoparticles for potential use in the medical field with the help of common eucalyptus leaves.
Dr Gerrard Eddy Poinern, Director of the Murdoch Applied Nanotechnology Research Group (MANRG), said gold nanometre scale particles were on the leading-edge of health innovation.
Gold nanoparticles have proven to be very versatile across a range of treatments, including in the delivery of double-stranded DNA in the emerging gene therapy area, Dr Poinern said.
They can also be passively accumulated in tumours for thermal treatment therapies, where they are heated to damage and kill cancer cells.
And studies have shown that cancer drugs bonded to the surface of gold nanoparticles can effectively target tumours, improving delivery and minimising treatment durations and the side effects of anticancer drugs.
Dr Poinern said, however, that up until recently, the particles production had involved expensive chemical and physical processes that often used toxic materials with potential hazards such as environmental toxicity, cytotoxicity and carcinogenicity.
Thanks to the Eucalyptus macrocarpa, were changing that. Our method is water-based, performed at room temperature and without the need for complex equipment and is clean and non-toxic, he said.
The green production of gold nanometre scale particles involves dissolving high purity gold wire into a mixture of nitric and hydrochloric acid to produce gold chloride.
The gold chloride is then mixed with a water-based solution of leaf extracts from the common Eucalyptus macrocarpa and allowed to synthesize at room temperature.
Excerpt from:
Eucalypts give nanomedicine a golden boost