green synthesis of hematite nanoparticles using aqueous extract of teucrium polium after microwave-assisted extraction: synthesis, characterization and evaluation of some biological activities

This work presented a green approach for the synthesis of hematite (α-fe2o3) magnetic nanoparticles (mnps) using the aqueous extract of teucrium polium plant. the aqueous extracts were prepared by the maceration and microwave-assisted extraction (mae) techniques and performed as the natural precursor for one-step green synthesis of α-fe2o3 mnps, at room temperature. the as-prepared α-fe2o3 mnps were characterized by different techniques including uv-vis absorption spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (sem), energy dispersive x-ray(edx), x-ray diffraction (xrd), fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (ft-ir) and vibrating sampling magnetometer (vsm). the xrd results confirmed the high crystalline structure of magnetic α-fe2o3 mnps. the average particle size of mnps was obtained around 60 nm. in addition, the antibacterial properties of the as-synthesized α-fe2o3 mnps against various pathogenic bacteria were investigated by well-diffusion test. based on the observations, α-fe2o3 mnps were more sensitive against gram-negative bacteria than the gram-positive bacteria. moreover, the dna cleavage potential of the samples was studied, too.