Abstract

Nanoparticles derived from Chitosan have become a wildly utilized material in biological experiments as an antimicrobial agent. Their application in food and health industries is also under rigorous investigation. The objective of this study was to synthesize chitosan nanoparticles (CNPs) from shrimp shell chitosan, characterize the particle size and their stability and to investigate the CNPs antimicrobial activity against selected strains of fungal and bacterial species. Characterization of the nanoparticles were done using surface plasmon resonance activity, zetapotential analysis and particles size distribution analysis.Disk diffusion method was employed to analyze the antimicrobial activity of the CNPs. The synthesized CNPs showed good stability with 52.3mV at 25.1 °C with a conductivity of 0.127mS/cm. The mean particle size was 32.2nm at 90° scattering angle under monodisperses form. Stable CNPs showed significant antimicrobial activity against Streptomyces species, Pseudomonas fluorescence Staphylococcus aureus, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus flavus. Stable nanoparticles were synthesized from shrimp shell chitosan and they can be used as antimicrobial and antioxidant agents.

Keywords: Chitosan nanoparticles; Shrimp shell; Antimicrobial activity; Antioxidant activity