LAUSR

The involvement of enzymes in green nanotechnology is rapidly developing and has continued to blossom in recent times. The present study examines the use of fungal xylanases from Aspergillus niger L3 (NEA) and Trichoderma longibrachiatum L2 (TEA) to biosynthesize gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) for biomedical applications. AuNPs were synthesized with indication of colour change from light yellow to purple, and surface plasmon resonance at 545 and 560 nm were obtained for NEA-AuNPs and TEA-AuNPs respectively. The Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy indicated that protein molecules were responsible for the capping and stabilization of the nanoparticles, which were mainly spherical (NEA-AuNPs) and flower-shaped (TEA-AuNPs). The sizes of the nanoparticles ranged from 4.88 to 123.99 nm, and displayed maximum antibacterial activity of 44.3% at 100 µg/ml, and antifungal activity of 87% at 150 µg/ml. While the AuNPs scavenged DPPH by 53.79%, hydrogen peroxide was scavenged by 96%. The biosynthesized AuNPs showed excellent anticoagulant and thrombolytic activities on human blood. This study demonstrated the potential use of xylanases to synthesize AuNPs, which to the best our knowledge, is the first report of such. The biosynthesized nanoparticles displayed activities making it predisposed for potential use as excellent biomedical agents.