Insights into the antibacterial, antifungal, and antiparasitic activities of functionalized ZnO quantum dots

In this article, we have synthesized mercaptoacetic acid (MAA), mercaptopropionic acid (MPA), ethylene glycol (EG), and citric acid (CA) functionalized ZnO quantum dots (QDs) and the role of these QDs as antibacterial, antifungal, and antiparasitic assays is investigated. In the antibacterial trial, it is observed that the zone of inhibition (ZOI) varies with the functionalized ligand of the ZnO QDs. The antifungal activity of these ligand-coated QDs using potato dextrose agar (PDA) containing petri plates has been inspected. The maximum antifungal activity of 78.3 % is explored against Aspergillus niger by MAA functionalized ZnO QDs at an optimized concentration of 2 mg/mL. During antiparasitic measurements, the promastigote and amastigote cell cultures of L. tropica are studied in this probe, by means of the MTT assay for ligand-coated these functionalized ZnO QDs at 20 µg/mL. The parasite’s promastigote and amastigote forms each have a highest death rate of 70.31±1.16 and 68.17±0.12, respectively, which is achieved through MAA functionalized ZnO QDs, while at the same time, the minimum activity of 34.44±0.12 and 32.24±0.33 is measured in the case of CA functionalized ZnO QDs.