Scientists from the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the Polish Academy of Sciences have discovered that silver nanoparticles make tea extracts a powerful agent against bacteria, fungi and other pathogens. The study was published in the scientific journal magazine Nanoscale Advances (NanoAdv).
Experts made this discovery while searching for effective methods to combat pathogens without using antibiotics.
Scientists turned their attention to tea and silver, as both substances were known for their bactericidal properties. Three well-known tea varieties were used as stabilizing agents in our study: black, green and Chinese Pu-erh tea.
Originally, tea-infused silver nanoparticles were used to treat gram-negative (E. coli or Escherichia coli) and gram-positive (E. faecium or enterococcus) bacterial strains.
Experts examined the interaction between the produced nanoparticles and pathogens to determine their effectiveness and compared the results with commercially available antibiotics.
Pathogens were then tested for the most effective concentration and particle composition according to the protocol; A reduction in bacterial cell count of up to 25% for Enterococcus and 90% for E. coli was revealed.
Green silver nanoparticles were also found to exhibit antifungal activity, leading to an 80% reduction in the number of viable cells of the candidiasis-causing fungus C. Auris and an approximately 90% reduction in the cell number of cryptococcosis. It causes the fungus C. Neoformans.
“We found that silver nanoparticles synthesized with tea extracts have higher antibacterial properties than silver nanoparticles on their own. Therefore, lower dosages (0.1 mg/ml) can be used. In some cases, the synergistic effect of tea extracts and silver nanoparticles can be observed at the same concentrations (0.1 mg/ml). mg/ml) and confirmed that it allowed us to achieve higher efficacy than antibiotics (ampicillin) when tested after a relatively short exposure time of three hours,” noted study co-author Mateusz Wdowiak.
Previous scientists I learnedIt turns out that ordinary soap greatly increases the effectiveness of mosquitoes against malaria.