Study of the effect of solvent on acetylate cashew gum-based nanoparticles properties and antimicrobial activity

The aim of this work was to investigate the influence of acetone and dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO) on acetylated cashew gun (ACG) nanoparticles parameters and to assess their antimicrobial activity. C1 nanoparticles presented smaller size (81.3 nm) than compared to C2 (115.7 nm). Although, acetone formed particles with lower PDI value. Both C1 and C2 presented negative zeta potential (-39.8 and -31.7 respectively). Particle tracking analysis showed that C1 was slightly more concentrated than C2. No statistical differences (p < 0.05) between the same samples after 5 months were found. Both samples did not exert inhibitory effect on E. coli, on the contrary S. aureus, in which both C1 (36.9%) and C2 (19.9%) provided important inhibitory effect. C1 presented a more pronounced antifungal effect (81.2%), compared to C2 (18.8%), indicating a promising platform to be used in several biomedical application. Keywords: polysaccharide, nanoparticles, biopolymers, modification, biological applications of polymers.