GREEN SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF ZIZIPHUS NUMMULARIA-MEDIATED ZINC OXIDE NANOPARTICLES: ANTIMICROBIAL, PHARMACOLOGICAL AND PHOTOCATALYTIC APPLICATIONS

Abstract

Plant-assisted fabrication offers a comparatively simple route for producing metal oxide nanomaterials while reducing reliance on conventional synthesis conditions. In the present revised manuscript, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) are described as being fabricated using an aqueous leaf extract of Ziziphus nummularia, followed by physicochemical characterization and evaluation in antimicrobial, pharmacological, antioxidant, antiparasitic, and environmental assays. The synthesis used zinc nitrate hexahydrate as the zinc precursor, while the resulting material was examined by UV–visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX), and dynamic light scattering (DLS). The retained experimental dataset showed a mean crystalline size of 68.3 nm, an optical band gap of 2.71 eV, a negative surface charge of −8.95 mV, and a DLS hydrodynamic size of 663.5 nm with a polydispersity index of 0.523. The nanoparticles produced concentration-dependent biological responses, including 68% inhibition of Leishmania tropica at the highest tested exposure, 78% protein-denaturation inhibition, 79.1% total antioxidant capacity, a 22.1 mm antibacterial inhibition zone against Escherichia coli, and 85 ± 2.1% inhibition of Ascochyta rabiei growth. In the environmental experiment, the material removed cadmium from aqueous solution, with the highest reported adsorption capacity reaching 85.3 mg g−1 after 120 min. These results support further investigation of plant-mediated ZnO-NPs as multifunctional materials. The present dataset, however, directly demonstrates antimicrobial, pharmacological, antioxidant, and adsorption performance; photocatalytic application is retained in the title as a prospective application area and should be experimentally validated in a dedicated photocatalysis assay before publication.