ABSTRACT
The effect of chitosan and hydrophobically modified chitosans with CuO nano-particles towards antimicrobial activity was investigated. Primarily, chitosan was modified by vanillin, naphthalene acidic acid (NAA), tyrosine, phendione and phenyl benzimidazole (phbenzim) ligands. The modified chitosan materials were characterized by analytical techniques. The FT-IR and NMR analysis showed the respective modifications on chitosan up to 80%. The modified chitosans were checked for biocompatibility with L929 fibroblast normal cell lines through MTT assay. And the order of biocompatibility is as follows: phendione-chitosan < phbenzim-chitosan < NAA-chitosan < vanillin-chitosan < tyrosine-chitosan < pure chitosan. The modified chitosan materials with and without CuO nano-particles were subjected to evaluate the antimicrobial properties on the bacterial and fungal strains staphylococcus epidermis and candida albicans, respectively. The antimicrobial effect of modified chitosans with CuO nano-particles is better than the unmodified chitosan and chitosan without CuO nano-particles. The order of antimicrobial activity in the presence of CuO nano-particles is phendione-chitosan >> phbenzim-chitosan > NAA-chitosan > vanillin-chitosan > tyrosine-chitosan ≈ pure chitosan. The antimicrobial property of chitosan and modified chitosans with CuO nanoparticles can be explored further for skin infective bacterial diseases.
