Evaluating In Vitro Inhibition of Ganoderma Boninense with Sodium Alginate Capped Silver and Copper Oxide Nanoparticles

Li, Ming Ju (2022) Evaluating In Vitro Inhibition of Ganoderma Boninense with Sodium Alginate Capped Silver and Copper Oxide Nanoparticles. Final Year Project (Bachelor), Tunku Abdul Rahman University College.

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Abstract

Ganoderma boninense is a fungal pathogen that causes Basal Stem Rot (BSR) disease, the greatest threat found in Malaysia’s oil palm plantations. In recent decades, researchers have been actively involved in BSR suppression studies, and yet up to date, none of the discovered methods can completely suppress BSR. This research investigates the effectiveness, and effective concentrations of sodium alginate capped Ag NPs and CuO NPs in inhibiting G. boninense in vitro. The identity of G. boninense was confirmed by identifying the presence of clamp connection of fungus. As-synthesised NPs produced using microwave-assisted green synthesis in water were subjected to characterisation methods. UV-vis spectroscopy confirmed the existence of spherical Ag NPs with average size of 15 nm by comparing samples’ absorbance with characteristic absorbance of Ag NPs at 400 nm. CuO NPs, a semiconductor without inherent plasmonic resonance property, absorb strongly at around 300-350nm. Phase analysis via PXRD concluded that the CuO NPs synthesised were of cubic symmetry with an average crystallite size of 43nm, quantified with the Scherrer equation. FTIR analysis confirmed the as-synthesised nanoparticles were capped by sodium alginate. A poison agar test was conducted by mixing 14 different concentrations of Ag NPs and CuO NPs with PDA. The inoculated plates were incubated for five days before determining PIDG%. The lowest PIDG% achieved by CuO NPs treatment was -15.40% at the concentration of 16 μg/mL whereas in Ag NPs treatment was -13.00% at 2μg/mL indicating CuO NPs inhibit G. boninense more efficiently than Ag NPs. However, two-way ANOVA results show an insignificant difference (P>0.05) in PIDG% from both NPs and concentration variation. Slightly shrunk and fragmented hyphae structures were observed using light microscopy and bright-field microscopy. In conclusion, CuO NPs has shown to be a potential chemical agent in suppressing G. boninense with effective concentration to be further investigated