Niloufar Dorosti, the project manager, told Iran Nanotechnology Initiative Council (INIC) that in the research, Dracocephalum’s extract was used to revive gold metal ions into metal nanoparticles. After the required testing and studies were conducted, it was revealed that these nanoparticles could be an appropriate alternative for treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Noting that the nanoparticles have anti-cancer properties, she said “due to the fact that the nanoparticles have been produced from a plant’s extract, they do not have any pollution or other issues that are caused via the chemical method.”
She went on to add, “for this reason, these nanoparticles are much safer and have fewer side effects than other similar medicines.”
“In the present study, a new morphology of the gold nanoparticles has been synthesized with the help of Dracocephalum’s extract, which has the ability to inhibit acetylcholinesterase enzyme that causes the Alzheimer’s’ disease,” she explained.
According to her, the metal ions of gold have been first converted into gold nanoparticles with the help of Dracocephalum’s extract and under optimum temperature, concentration, time and pH. Then, the nanoparticles were identified by microscopic techniques including TEM, XRD, DLS and SEM-EDAX. Finally, inhibition and anti-cancer tests were conducted.
Dorosti noted that the microscopic images show the size of the gold nanoparticles is 11nm with a roughly spherical morphology.
The results of the research have been published in Journal of Applied Biomedicine, volume 14, no. 3, 2016, pp. 235-245.
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