insight into zeolite/histidine nanocomposite as an advanced carrier for metronidazole

Abstract: the use of porous materials as host systems for medical applications has been considered in recent years. the aim of this work is to construct an efficient carrier for the adsorption and delivering of metronidazole (met). for this purpose, pretreated natural nano-sized clinoptilolite (z) was modified by histidine (his) and the obtained modified zeolite nanoparticles (z-his) were used to design a system for loading and release of metronidazole. the adsorbed and released extents of the drug onto/from the modified zeolite were determined by uv-vis spectroscopy. the results showed that both decreasing the particle size of clinoptilolite and modifying its surface can significantly increase the adsorbed drug. all the compounds were characterized by sem, ftir, and xrd. ft-ir results showed sufficient loading of histidine and metronidazole onto the raw and modified zeolite, respectively. ir spectroscopy studies indicated loading of histidine on the zeolite surface and metronidazole by the modified zeolite. due to the presence of hydroxyl and nitro groups in the metronidazole structure, ph plays an important role on the adsorbed met.