Abstract:
Zinc oxide nanoparticles and curcumin have been shown to be excellent antimicrobial agents and
promising anticancer agents, both on their own as well as in combination. Together, they have potential
as alternatives/supplements to antibiotics and traditional anticancer drugs. In this study, different
morphologies of zinc oxide-grafted curcumin nanocomposites (ZNP–Cs) were synthesized and
characterized using SEM, TGA, FTIR, XRD and UV-vis spectrophotometry. Antimicrobial assays were
conducted against both Gram negative and Gram-positive bacterial stains. Spherical ZnO–curcumin
nanoparticles (SZNP–Cs) and rod-shaped ZnO–curcumin nanoparticles showed the most promising
activity against tested bacterial strains. The inhibition zones for these curcumin-loaded ZnO
nanocomposites were consistently larger than their bare counterparts or pure curcumin, revealing an
additve effect between the ZnO and curcumin components. The potential anticancer activity of the
synthesized nanocomposites was studied on the rhabdomyosarcoma RD cell line via MTT assay, while
their cytotoxic effects were tested against human embryonic kidney cells using the resazurin assay.
SZNP–Cs exhibited the best balance between the two, showing the lowest toxicity against healthy cells
and good anticancer activity. The results of this investigation demonstrate that the nanomatrix
synthesized can act as an effective, additively-enhanced combination delivery/therapeutic agent, holding
promise for anticancer therapy and other biomedical applications
