Article

Journal of
Biomedical
Nanotechnology
Copyright © 2013 American Scientific Publishers
All rights reserved Vol. 9, 1–8, 2013
Printed in the United States of America www.aspbs.com/jbn

Antimicrobial Activity of CaO Nanoparticles

Arup Roy1 , Samiran S. Gauri2 , Madhusmita Bhattacharya3 , and Jayanta Bhattacharya1
∗
1
Department of Mining Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India
2
Department of Biotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpur 721302, India
3
Gitam Institute of Science, Gitam University, Visakhapatnam Campus, Visakhapatnam 530045, India

The high degree of microbial diseases and their multidrug resistant properties make the researchers to develop new
class of antimicrobial agents. A modern and innovative approach of drug development is the use of metallic nanoparti-
cles as new formulations of antimicrobial agents. In this study, microwave irradiated CaO nanoparticles (CaO-NPs) were
used to determine their antimicrobial efficacy against gram negative and gram positive bacteria, as well as pathogenic
yeast. The physiochemical properties of CaO-NPs were characterized by means of X-ray diffraction (XRD) and high res-
olution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). The nanoparticles consist of well dispersed agglomerates of grains
with a narrow size distribution of 14–24 nm. The prepared CaO-NPs showed much higher antimicrobial activity against
P seudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) and Staphylococcus epidermidis (MTCC 435) in comparision to Candida trop-
icalis (NCIM 3110). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of CaO-NPs was found within the range of 2–8
mM for all the above tested strains. This bioactive nanoparticle also inhibits the biofilm formation and may have future
applications cheap and non toxic as antimicrobial drug for skin care product development.
KEYWORDS: CaO Nanoparticles, Antimicrobial Activity, Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC), Multidrug Resistant, Biofilm.

INTRODUCTION Over a past few decades, nanoparticles have been exten-

Pseudomonas aeruginosa are the most common Gram-
negative opportunistic pathogen of humans1 and it causes
ulcer like keratitis, lung infections, cystic fibrosis, noso-
comial infection and a wide range of severe and some-
times fatal diseases in immunocompromised individuals.2
Whereas Staphylococcus epidermidis, one of the most
prevalent cutaneous resident bacteria and resistant to
many antibiotics and a common opportunistic pathogen of
human skin3 which may easily colonize on the indwelling
catheters surface,4
5 prosthetic joints,6 cerebrospinal fluid
shunts,7
8 and other medical devices by the production
of adhesin like extracellular polysaccharide. Among fungi
affecting human health, Candida tropicalis found in nor-
mal human mucocutaneous flora, is mainly responsible
for septicemia and disseminated candidiasis, especially in
patients with lymphoma, leukemia and diabetes.9–10 Can-
dida tropicalis also shows a high incidence of antifungal
drug resistance.11
∗
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Email: jayantaism@gmail.com
Received: 23 November 2012
Revised/Accepted: 4 April 2013
sively applied in various fields of public interest. Nanopar-
ticles possess unique physicochemical characteristics, such
as a high ratio of surface area to mass, high reactiv-
ity, and sizes in the range of nanometers (10−9 m).12
Nanoparticles have also been successfully used to enhance
the immobilization and activity of catalysts,13 in medical
and pharmaceutical nanoengineering for delivery of ther-
apeutic agents,14 in chronic disease diagnostics, and in
sensors.15 The increasing adaptability of clinical microbial
strains to antimicrobial drug resistance demands highly
effective compounds for the treatment of critical micro-
bial infection. Nanoparticles have demonstrated antimi-
crobial activities; the development of novel applications
in this field makes them an attractive alternative to con-
ventional dispensesions. Nanoparticles have also been
used in clothing and in the food industry to limit bac-
terial growth.16–18 For instance, nanoparticles have been
examined for their ability to reduce microbial infections
in skin19 and burn wounds,20 and also to prevent bac-
terial colonization on various surface devices such as
catheters21 and prostheses.22 Metal oxide nanoparticles
(NPs) are known to possess strong antimicrobial proper-
ties. Inorganic metal oxides are being increasingly used for
antimicrobial applications. The main advantages of using

J. Biomed. Nanotechnol. 2013, Vol. 9, No. xx 1550-7033/2013/9/001/008 doi:10.1166/jbn.2013.1681 1

Antimicrobial Activity of CaO Nanoparticles
inorganic oxides when compared with organic antimicro-
bial agents are their stability, robustness, and long shelf
life. The considerable antimicrobial activities of inorganic
metal oxide nanoparticles such as ZnO, MgO, TiO2 , SiO2
and their selective toxicity to biological systems sug-
gest their potential application in therapeutics, diagnostics,
surgical devices and nanomedicine based antimicrobial
agents.23–27 The advantages of using these inorganic oxides
nanoparticles as antimicrobial agents are their greater
effectiveness on resistant strains of microbial pathogens.
A higher concentration of smaller particles with a higher
surface area gives a better antibacterial behavior,28–30
whereas crystalline structure and particle shape have a
very small effect.31 A number of mechanisms have also
been proposed to interpret these experimental observa-
tions. These include production of active oxygen species
due to the presence of nanoparticles,30
32 damage of mem-
brane cell wall through adhesion on the cell membrane,33
penetration through the membrane cell wall30 and cellular
internalisation of nanoparticles.34
35
Although having promising potency towards disease
causing microorganisms of the metal oxide nanoparticles
there are a number of literature also available explain-
ing cytotoxicity and genotoxicity of those nanoparticles.
The toxicity of several metal oxide NPs such as TiO2 ,
ZnO, and Fe2 O3 has been analyzed using different cell
lines. A complete review about this issue has been recently
reported.36 At such juncture researchers are interested to
find out new nanomaterials having potential antimicrobial
effects. Although only a few studies have been reported
the antibacterial properties of calcium oxide, they show
calcium oxide powder37
38 has a significant promise as
bactericidal agent, for their relatively less toxicity and no
recorded endocrine disruptive effect.
In this study, a new antimicrobial nanoparticle (CaO-
NPs) was synthesized and assessed for antimicrobial activ-
ities using a panel of bacterial and fungal pathogen. Here,
Staphylococcus epidermidis (MTCC 435), Pseudomonas
aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) and Candida tropicalis (NCIM
3110) are chosen as a representative of Gram negative
bacteria, Gram positive bacteria, and fungus, respectively,
which are the most causal pathogens for skin diseases.
EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS
Chemicals
For the synthesis of CaO-NPs, Ca(NO3 2 · 4H2 O (Merck)
and Sodium hydroxide (Merck) and ultra pure Milli-Q
water were used and; other reagents were obtained from
local supplies.
Biological Materials
Antimicrobial activity was tested using Staphylococ-
cus epidermidis (MTCC 435) as Gram-positive bacteria,
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (ATCC 27853) as Gram-negative
bacteria, and Candida tropricalis (NCIM 3110) as fungus.
2 J. Biomed. Nanotechnol. 9, 1–8, 2013
Roy et al.
Synthesis of CaO Nanoparticles
CaO nanoparticles (CaO-NPs) with narrow size distribu-
tion were synthesized using microwave irradiation method
with minor modifications.39 Briefly, 0.5 M Ca(NO3 2 ·
4H2 O and 0.7 M of NaOH were separately dissolved in
50 ml de-ionized water and mixed to form 100 ml mixture
(solutions). The mixture was stirred for 10 min at room
temperature and it turned into white gel. Then the mix-
ture was transferred in a 250 mL round bottom flask with
condenser attachment kept in a Multi Synth microwave
refluxing system. Maximum deliverable power output was
200 W and was set at a temperature of 160  C for duration
of 5 min. After microwave processing, the solution was
allowed to cool to reach room temperature, naturally. The
resulting precipitate was collected by vacuum filtration and
washed with de-ionized water and absolute ethanol, and
dried in a vacuum at 80  C for 1 h.
Characterization of Synthesized Nanoparticles
The phase analysis and crystal structure of CaO-NPs was
studied by X-ray diffractograms (XRD). The XRD pattern
was recorded using a diffractometer of Philips X-pert Pro
X-ray diffractometer, with 0.1789 nm Co-K radiation.
Particle sizes and morphology were studied with a high
resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) of
JEOL (JEM-2100), with an operating voltage 200 kV.
In sample preparation for HRTEM studies, a small portion
of CaO-NPs were dispersed in acetone and sonicated for
30 min. Part of this dispersion was dropped over a car-
bon film supported by a copper grid and dried in vacuum
before imaging.
Antimicrobial Activity Assay
The preliminary antimicrobial susceptibility was tested by
using agar-well diffusion method as described by Perez
et al.40 Briefly, the bacterial isolates were first grown in
a nutrient broth for 12–18 h before use and standardized
to 0.5 McFarland standards (106 cfu ml−1 ). One hundred
microliter of the standardized cell suspensions were spread
on a Mueller-Hinton agar (Hi Media) and the agar medium
was punched with a six millimeters diameter wells and
filled with different concentration of nanoparticles solu-
tions in equal amounts. The plates are observed for zone
of inhibition after 24 h incubation at 37  C.
The Minimum Inhibitory concentration (MIC) and Min-
imum Bactericidal Concentration (MBC) were determined
by following broth micro-dilution method and agar plating
method, respectively according to Clinical and Laboratory
Standards Institute (CLSI) guidelines.41 The concentra-
tions of CaO-NPs used for the assay ranged from 0.125 to
32 mM. MIC value was determined by the microtitre plate
dilution method,42 where no visible growth is observed. A
range of CaO concentrations were added to sterile 96-well
microtitre plates and the volume was made up to 250 L
well−1 with Mueller-Hinton broth. Culture of the strain
Roy et al.
was added to the mixtures in such a way that the total
inoculum load was 105 cells/well. Finally, microtitre plates
were incubated at 37  C for 24 h. Bacterial growth was
measured by the optical density at 600 nm using a Mul-
tiskan Spectrum spectrophotometer (model 1500; Thermo
Scientific, Nyon, Switzerland) and the MIC value of the
CaO-NPs was determined by comparing the cell densi-
ties with wells where no CaO-NPs was added as positive
control and no bacteria with different test concentrations
(uninoculated control) were used as negative control to
maintain the sterility as well as blank. Minimum Bacte-
ricidal Concentration (MBC) was determined by colony
forming unit (CFU) of each concentration following dilu-
tion plating method.43
44 Determination of all values were
carried out in triplicate and repeated at least four times for
accuracy. In case of Candida tropicalis, Sabouraud dex-
trose medium was used for all antifungal assays.
Time-Kill Assays
Time-kill assays were performed to check the efficacy
CaO-NPs towards tested pathogens. In this assay, all the
tested strains were treated with different concentration
of CaO-NPs within the range of 0.125–8 mM and their
growth was monitored at every 1 h time interval.
Live Microscopy and Biofilm Formation
The live growth pattern of all the CaO-NPs treated
microorganisms were monitored in microtitre plate by
inverted phase contrast microscopy (Olympus 1 × 51).
Images were captured by Image ProTM discovery soft-
ware (Olympus). While, the qualitative biofilm forma-
tion assayed for P. aeruginosa was made by fluorescence
microscopy. Different concentrations of CaO-NPs were
used to treat 24 h grown P. aeruginosa in polystyrene plate
and again incubated for 48 h at 37  C. After 48 h incu-
bation, the medium was aspirated off and non-adherent
cells were removed by washing thoroughly with sterile
0.15 M phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) pH 7.2. Bacterial
samples were stained with Syto Green fluorescence stain
according to manufacturer protocol (Invitrogen) and visu-
alized directly in an inverted microscope and photographed
(Olympus).
Examination of Cell Morphology by
Scanning Electron Microscope
Mid-log phase Pseudomonas aeruginosa cultures were
treated with 4 mM CaO-NPs for 12 h. Aliquots of 200 l
treated and untreated cell suspensions were deposited on
glass cover slips. After air drying for 1 h, the cover
slips were fixed with a primary fixative solution contain-
ing 2.5% glutaraldehyde. Subsequently, the fixative solu-
tion was exchanged with 0.1 M imidazole buffer, followed
by dehydration with a series of ethanol solutions (50%,
80% and 100%) with three ethanol changes at each con-
centration. Finally the cover slips were dried with liquid
J. Biomed. Nanotechnol. 9, 1–8, 2013
Antimicrobial Activity of CaO Nanoparticles
CO2 -ethanol exchange in a Critical Point Dryer (Denton
Vacuum, Inc., Cherry Hill, NJ). The cover slips were
mounted on SEM stubs with carbon adhesive tabs, then
sputter-coated with a thin layer of gold using a Scancoat Six
Sputter Coater (BOC Edwards, Wilmington, MA). Digital
images of the treated and untreated Pseudomonas aerugi-
nosa cells were acquired using a field emission scanning
electron microscope (FESEM) of Carl Zeiss model Supra-
40 (with an accelerated voltage 10–20 kV) and instrumental
magnifications of 25,000×. Attachment of CaO-NPs over
the cell surface was studied with in situ EDX in conjunc-
tion with the FESEM imaging of selective regions.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Characterization of Synthesized Nanoparticals
X-ray diffraction (XRD), measurements were carried out
over the diffraction angle (2) 20 –80 (Fig. 1). Unit cell
parameters were obtained by least-square refinement of the
powder XRD data. XRD study revealed that the products
are CaO-NPs with lattice constant a = 4801 Å (Fm3m
space group) having nanosized particles; the d-spacing
values in the parenthesis indicate respective Miller indices.
The crystallite size was measured using Scherrer equa-
tion and it was found that the average size (D) of synthe-
sized CaO-NPs was 16 nm. X-ray diffraction studies shows
that the microwave assisted synthesized materials were
pure monophasic cubic CaO-NPs and the crystal structures
agree well with the corresponding reported JCPDS data
(JCPDS powder diffraction data card no. 77-2376). Line
broadening of the diffraction peaks is an indication that the
synthesized materials are in nanometer range. The char-
acteristic peaks were higher in intensity and narrower in
spectral width, indicating that the products were of good
crystallinity. No peaks corresponding to impurities were
detected, showing that the final products are high quality
CaO-NPs.
Figure 1. The XRD pattern of synthesized CaO-NPs.
3
Antimicrobial Activity of CaO Nanoparticles Roy et al.

Figure 2. The HRTEM micrograph of synthesized CaO-NPs with inset showing lattice spacing and particles size distribution
histogram in the inset.

Morphological characterization was carried out by minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC). Table I shows
HRTEM, which is a direct way that provides visual comparative study of MIC and MBC values of different
demonstration to estimate particle size exactly. Figure 2 microbes. The MIC values of CaO-NPs were found to
shows HRTEM micrograph of the synthesized CaO-NPs.
HRTEM micrograph of the sample indicates that the sam-
Table I. Antimicrobial activity of CaO nanopartocles against
ple was well dispersive nanoparticles. Inset in Figure 2 three different microbes.
shows the lattice fringe of 0.2403 nm corresponds to the
(200) plane of CaO-NPs. The image shows an abundance Antimicrobial activity (mM)
of particles whose size distribution is given by the his- Name of organism MIC MBC
togram shown in the inset of Figure 2, the histogram was
S. epidermidis 2 4
obtained by analyzing several frames of similar bright P. aeruginosa 4 8
field images using IMAGE J software. HRTEM shows C. tropicalis 8 8
microstructure of the nanomaterials having cubic shapes
which is similar with X-ray diffraction study. The particles
have an average size of ∼18 nm, which is in close agree- Table II. Comparative table of minimum bactericidal concen-
ment with an average D-value 16 nm determined from the trations (MBCs) of some metals and metal oxides nanoparti-
XRD peak broadening. In this present work minor modifi- cles against P. aeruginosa.
cation in the synthesis process of CaO-NPs produces nar- Name of
row size distribution and smaller sized nanoparticles than Sl. no. Nanopartical MBC (mM) References
earlier report.39 1 Ag 0
11 [45]
2 Cu 78
69 [44]
Antimicrobial Assay 3 Cu2 O 17
47 [44]
The antibacterial effect of CaO-NPs against Staphylo- 4 CuO 62
85 [44]
5 ZnO 61
41 [46]
coccus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Can-
6 TiO2 100
16 [46]
dida tropicalis growth was verified by two established 7 CaO 8 In this study
measures: minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and

4 J. Biomed. Nanotechnol. 9, 1–8, 2013

Roy et al.
Figure 3. Growth pattern of three tested organisms in pres-
ence of different concentrations of CaO-NPs. Culture medium
was supplemented with various concentrations (0–32 mM) of
nanoparticles. Bacterial growth was measured at 600 nm after
24 h at 30 ± 2
C. The bacterial growth OD was calculated by
deduction of blank from test. Data are the mean of triplicate
experiments ± S.E.
be 2, 4 and 8 mM for Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseu-
domonas aeruginosa and Candida tropicalis respectively
(Fig. 3 and Fig. S2). The MBC result showed that the
cells treated with 4, 8 and 8 mM of the nanoparticles for
Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and
Candida tropicalis were no longer culturable, suggesting
a lethal effect of CaO-NPs. The selected CaO-NPs were
effective in killing a range of bacterial pathogens com-
mon in hospital-acquired infections. The bactericidal con-
centration was quite lower for Staphylococcus epidermidis
(4 mM) in comparision to gram negative Pseudomonas
aeruginosa (8 mM) and unicellular yeast Candida trop-
icalis (8 mM). It has been suggested that the greater
amount of negatively charged peptidoglycans would make
Gram-positive bacteria more susceptible to such positively
charged antimicrobials.45 However, in comparison to some
other reported metal or metal oxide nanoparticles, the
studied CaO-NPs needed much lower bactericidal concen-
trations for Pseudomonas aeruginosa as shown in Table II.
Figure 4. Reduction of microbial population with time when treated with different concentrations of CaO-NPs (0.125, 0.25, 0.5,
1, 2, 4 and 8 mM). Results are given as percentage of control (microorganisms are in nanoparticle-free phosphate-buffered
saline). Standard error bars are shown. Three replicate experiments on three separate occasions were performed.
J. Biomed. Nanotechnol. 9, 1–8, 2013
Antimicrobial Activity of CaO Nanoparticles
Jones et al.48 reported MIC of ZnO was 5 mM, whereas
the studied CaO-NPs has much lower MIC value of only
2 mM against Staphylococcus epidermidis. The higher
antimicrobial activity may be due to high surface area
(96.52 m2 /g) and small particle sizes (∼18 nm) of synthe-
sized CaO-NPs and thus can cause the bacteria to coagu-
late in nanoparticle suspensions.
Time-Kill Assays
All the microorganisms were challenged with CaO-NPs
for a period of 4 h. The antimicrobial effect was shown
to be dose-dependent and rapid (Fig. 4) for all the tested
strains. Microbial reduction was significant and reached
near 100% in case of Staphylococcus epidermidis within 2
h and Pseudomonas aeruginosa within 3 h. In case of Can-
dida tropicalis the reduction was 97% at 3 h incubation.
For Staphylococcus epidermidis, 4 and 8 mM of CaO-NPs
were the lowest most effective concentrations. For Pseu-
domonas aeruginosa, 8 mM at 3 h and 4 mM at 4 h of
CaO-NPs concentrations were found to be the most effec-
tive dose. In case of Candida tropicalis, the most effective
lowest antimicrobial CaO-NPs concentration was found at
8 mM at 4 h.
Microscopic Observations
Figure 5 shows fluorescence micrograph of inhibitory
effect of CaO-NPs on biofilm formation against Pseu-
domonas aeruginosa. Complete (Fig. 5(C)) biofilm forma-
tion was observed in case of 4 mM concentration of CaO-
NPs. Effects of CaO-NPs on Pseudomonas aeruginosa cell
morphology were also examined by FESEM micrograph.
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (rod shaped bacteria) show their
unique shapes in untreated control sample (Fig. 5(D)).
Although the cells of P. aeruginosa were still present (Fig.
5(E)), most strains of Pseudomonas aeruginosa were dam-
aged and extensively disappeared by addition of CaO-NPs
solution. The cell surface of Pseudomonas aeruginosa was
covered with substance resulted from the cell disruption
after the CaO-NPs treatment shown in (Fig. 5(F)). The
presence of CaO-NPs on the bacterial cell surface was
5
Antimicrobial Activity of CaO Nanoparticles Roy et al.

Figure 5. Fluorescence microscopy images of P. aeruginosa biofilm formation inhibition (A) Control cells without CaO-NPs,
(B) treated with 2 mM CaO-NPs (C) treated with 4 mM CaO-NPs. P. aeruginosa culture was stained with Syto Green flouroscence
stain (invitrogen) Scale bar: 20
m.; FESEM images of P. aeruginosa: (D) without nanoparticles; (E) with 4 mM CaO-NPs (F) mag-
nified images of Images showed the nanoparticles were adhere to bacterial cell surface and ruptured the cell membrane. All the
images were taken at 400× magnification.

supported by EDX analysis in Figure S1 (in supporting When compared to normal untreated microbial population,
materials). CaO-NPs treated microbial population showed up to
Bacterial growth inhibitory effects of CaO-NPs were 95 fold destruction (Fig. 6) in their cell structure.
studied by phase contrast and fluorescence microscopy. Figure 6(A) showed that, after addition of 2 mM

Figure 6. Phase contrast microscopy image (400× magnifications) of S. epidermidis (A), P. aeruginosa (B) and C. tropicalis (C)
treated with 0 mM, 2 mM and 4 mM CaO-NPs nanoparticles after 24 h incubation at 37
C. Scale bar: 20
m.

6 J. Biomed. Nanotechnol. 9, 1–8, 2013

Roy et al.
concentration of CaO-NPs in Staphylococcus epidermidis,
cells became irregular in size, shape and clamping also
occurs. Whereas, after addition of 4 mM of CaO-NPs,
few cells were observed but their shapes were irregular
in nature and most of the cells were found lysed. Figure
6(B) shows microscopic image of Pseudomonas aerugi-
nosa after addition of CaO-NPs. Most of the cells were
elongated and made up of irregular shape after addition
of 2 mM solution of CaO-NPs, and after the addition of
4 mM of CaO-NPs a very few well structured cells were
found. Most of them were spherical in shape and lost cell
structure integrity. Similar results were also observed in
case of Candida tropicalis, where fungi lost their morpho-
logical integrity (Fig. 6(C)).
The optical inspection of bacterial specimens and bio-
logical samples in general in their indigenous states is nor-
mally performed by phase contrast microscopy where the
image contrast is obtained by converting the phase vari-
ation of the transparent biological object into the ampli-
tude variation. All the microbial strains were found to lose
their cell structure integrity after treatment with CaO-NPs.
Spherical shape was observed due to inhibition of cell divi-
sion. CaO-NPs appear to cause immediate and widespread
change in cell morphology after addition. The disruption
of cellular membrane was well supported by the image
of scanning electron microscopy, where the membrane
damage was clearly visible after treatment with CaO-NPs
(Fig. 5). The result shows good agreement with previ-
ously reported literature.32
37
49
50 Sawai et al.32 reported
that slurry of powder oxides like MgO and CaO generate
superoxide (O− 2 ) and have antibacterial as well as anti-
fungal activity. Though the generation of reactive oxygen
species (ROS) in the presence of CaO-NPs was not verified
in our experiments, there exist a good number of citations
claiming generation of supper oxide (O2− ) from the CaO
surface.49–52 The studies point the role of active oxygen
as one primary mechanism of antimicrobial activity that is
also, among other things, influenced by the increase of
pH in the medium. Sawai et al.49
50 reported that in addi-
tion to high pH another factor, active oxygen also helps
in antibacterial activity of CaO and MgO powder. ROS
such as HO•2 , • O−2 , and H2 O2 generated from the surface of
CaO-NPs, react and break the structure of polyunsaturated
phospholipids in the microbial cell membrane. In addition,
the alkaline nature of the CaO-NPs could help metal oxide
nanopartcles to be surrounded with OH− layers.53
CONCLUSION
In summary, the broad-spectrum antimicrobial efficiency
of CaO-NPs was demonstrated. Minor modified method
for synthesis CaO-NPs has prominent control on size
(∼18 nm) and narrow size distribution (14–24 nm).
Obtained values of MIC for Staphylococcus epider-
midis, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Candida tropicalis
showed excellent antibacterial activity and can be used as
J. Biomed. Nanotechnol. 9, 1–8, 2013
Antimicrobial Activity of CaO Nanoparticles
promising antibacterial agents. The effect was dose depen-
dent and found more pronounced against gram positive
organisms than gram negative ones. Effect of contact time
with CaO-NPs and microorganisms also showed promis-
ing result. CaO-NPs showed antimicrobial effect towards
test organisms Staphylococcus epidermidis, Pseudomonas
aeruginosa and Candida tropicalis in decreasing order.
Acknowledgments: The authors would like to
acknowledge the financial support provided by the “Coun-
cil of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), India” to
the first author to carry out the work.
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