Archives
International Journal of Zoology and Applied Biosciences Research Article
Green synthesis and characterization of copper oxide (CUO) nanoparticles using Aloe vera leaf extract: Antidiabetic, Antioxidant, and Antimicrobial applications
Pujatai A. Nawkhare and Suresh B. Rewatkar
Year : 2026 | Pages: 1-14
Received on: 24/06/2026
Revised on: 12/07/2026
Accepted on: 16/09/2026
Published on: 31/10/2026
-
Pujatai A. Nawkhare and Suresh B. Rewatkar( 2026).
Green synthesis and characterization of copper oxide (CUO) nanoparticles using Aloe vera leaf extract: Antidiabetic, Antioxidant, and Antimicrobial applications
. International Journal of Zoology and Applied Biosciences, 11( 5), 1-14.
-
click to view the cite format
Abstract
The copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles were bio synthesized using the aqueous extract of Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis miller) leaf gel as a natural reducing and capping agent and aqueous ammonia for pH adjusting with copper sulfate pentahydrate (CuSO?·5H?O) as metal precursor. Synthesized nanoparticles were analyzed using Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The characteristic Cu–O bond of CuO was confirmed by FTIR analysis, along with the presence of functional groups associated with the processes of bioreduction and capping performed by the phytoconstituents of Aloe vera. These were assigned as a single-phase monoclinic tenorite (CuO) structure, having an average crystallite size around 11–12 nm, as confirmed by XRD. SEM imaging showed dense collections of quasi-spherical to polygonal nanoparticles exhibiting sub-100 nm primary features, while EDX spectroscopy succeeded in confirming that only oxygen and copper (71.4 wt% Cu, 28.6 wt% O) elements existed in the product with no detectable element of impurity. The ?-glucosidase inhibitory (antidiabetic) activity of the nanoparticles was also evaluated and the nanoparticles inhibited the enzyme with an IC50 of 47.86 ± 0.12 µg/mL while the standard acarbose had an activity of 551.1 ± 0.03 µg/mL under the same assay conditions. The radical scavenging activity in a DPPH assay was weak with the same nanoparticles with IC50 values exceeding the maximum dose tested (maximum 10.91% at 1000 µg/mL), as opposed to their alpha-glucosidase inhibitory activity. The antibacterial screening through Agar well diffusion (Kirby Bauer) method exhibited organism dependent activity with moderate zone of inhibition in both case the E. coli and B. subtilis were active against most of the dosage used (In between 8.33 mm at 312.5 µg to 13.67 mm at 5000 µg and 11.67 mm at 5000 µg, respectively), whereas for S. aureus and P. aeruginosa the activity observed was limited only with higher dosage tested (Between 16.33 mm at 5000 µg and 11.33 mm at 5000 µg at 5000 PPT and 10000 PPT respectively). All zones were much smaller than the appropriate ciprofloxacin positive control (24-31 mm for 3 µg). Overall, the results suggest that Aloe vera mediated CuO nanoparticles could be a prospective, environmentally benign and low-cost nanomaterial with major biomedical advantage of ?-glucosidase inhibition which has an additional concentration dependent antibacterial activity and comparatively low antimicrobial antioxidant activity.
Keywords
Green synthesis, CuO nanoparticles, α -glucosidase inhibition, Antidiabetic activity, DPPH.
-
Full Article PDF (5)
Copy Rights
© The Author(s) 2026. This article is published by International Journal of Zoology and Applied Biosciences under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (creativecommons.org), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
