Study of bio‐fabrication of iron nanoparticles and their fungicidal property against phytopathogens of apple orchards

Abstract

Current research trends on iron nanoparticles (FeNPs) are extensively focused because of their unique magnetic and electrical properties mostly applicable in essential medical devices. However, their fungicidal property against plant pathogens is very less known until date. Present study demonstrates a green technique for blending of FeNPs by utilising aqueous extract of neem leaf ( A Juss.) as reducing agent. Various characterisation techniques such as ultraviolet (UV)-visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy transmission electron microscopy, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction were performed for FeNPs. The authors' results demonstrate the more cluster formation of FeNPs with size distribution of 20-80 nm. The bio-fabricated FeNPs showed enhanced biocidal activity against economically important phytopathogens of apple such as , and . From the obtained results, it can be suggested that further delve into green synthesis of FeNPs can address future biotechnology concerns to limit the synthesis of FeNPs by conventional methods. Furthermore, the field study on pathogenic fungi can be an effective step to verify their agricultural applications.

Biosynthesis of iron nanoparticles (FeNPs) by Alternaria alternata MVSS-AH-5

“…During synthesis of iron nanoparticles the reduction of Fe 2+ or Fe 3+ ions to Fe 0 is confirmed by visible color change to brown/black depending of nanoparticles concentration in the reaction mixture. Color change indicated the formation of FeNPs physically (Mohamed et al, 2015;Devatha et al, 2016;Ahmad et al, 2017;Asghar et al, 2018;Fahmy et al, 2018). For the four extracellular filtrates used in this study a brown color was revealed in all samples at the end of the assay, but confirmation of FeNPs was carry out by UV-visible spectrophotometer and analysis TEM.…”

“…In addition, the spectrum band of EF-PDB was narrower than that of EF-C, indicating that possibly the size dispersion of the nanoparticles biosynthesized in the EF-PDB was low comparing with EF-C. Mohemed et al (2015) reported that FePNs biosynthesized by biomass of A. alternata had a cubic shape, with average particle diameter of 9 ± 3 nm, the culture medium and production conditions was different to those used in this research. Another sizes and shape of FeNPs has been reported as 20-80 nm (Ahmad et al, 2017), amorphous and spherical of 40 to 70 nm (Yi et al, 2019), spherical of 5-10 nm (Murgueitio et al, 2018), spherical of 96-110 nm (Devatha et al, 2018), spherical of 50 to 60 nm (Fahmy et al, 2018), spherical of 42-60 nm (Asghar et al, 2018). To MH-FeNPs and CCP-FeNPs, sizes of 84.81 and 48.91 nm was detected respectively.…”

“…The peak obtained for FeNPs could varies in the range of 300-500 nm (Devatha et al, 2016). A strong peak at 272 nm was detected during bio-fabrication of iron nanoparticles by using Azadirachta indica leaf (Ahmad et al, 2017), 325 and 296 nm (Devatha et al, 2018), 285 and 324 nm; 216 and 265 nm (Fahmy et al, 2018), 266 and 274 nm (Asghar et al, 2018) all of them using different plant extracts. Magnetic iron oxide (Fe3O4) nanoparticles was biosynthesized using aqueous extract of food processing waste, peaks at 330 and 365 nm from MH-FeNPs, and 325 and 365 nm from CCP-FeNPs were detected, absorption band at 355 nm indicated the formation of nano-sized Fe3O4 NPs (Patra et al, 2017).…”

“…For the four extracellular filtrates used in this study a brown color was revealed in all samples at the end of the assay, but confirmation of FeNPs was carry out by UV-visible spectrophotometer and analysis TEM. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) absorption transition is the most characteristic part of nanoparticles, different wavelength emission bands has been identified during biological synthesis of FeNPs (Ahmad et al, 2017). In the case of EF-MDB a maximum intensities of the absorption were between 225 to 303 nm (Fig.…”

“…Current applications of iron-based technologies involved remediation process and, are divided into two groups: technologies which use iron as a sorbent, (co-)precipitant or contaminant immobilising agent; and the use of iron as an electron donor to break down or to convert contaminants into a less toxic or mobile form (Bhalerao 2014). As Fentolike catalyst for the decolorization of sodium borohydride (Schröfel et al, 2014), as antibacterial agent of Zero-valent iron nanoparticles (nano-Fe 0 ) against Escherichia coli (Lee et al, 2008), and as antifungal agent against filamentous fungi Alternaria mali, Botryosphaeria dothidea, and Diplodia seriata (Ahmad et al, 2017). The Fe3O4 NPs (magnetite) have particularly produced great interest in the field of magnetic materials with promising applications for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), optical, catalysis, environmental remediation, tissue engineering and targeted drug delivery (Patra et al, 2017).…”