'Green' gold nanos

[Dr Mordrid]

Wow....First it's found effective in treating type 2 diabetes and now this. Tasty too

PhysOrg....

Cinnamon can replace harmful chemicals used to create nanoparticles

Gold nanoparticles, tiny pieces of gold so small that they can't be seen by the naked eye, are used in electronics, healthcare products and as pharmaceuticals to fight cancer. Despite their positive uses, the process to make the nanoparticles requires dangerous and extremely toxic chemicals. While the nanotechnology industry is expected to produce large quantities of nanoparticles in the near future, researchers have been worried about the environmental impact of the global nanotechnological revolution.

Now, a study by a University of Missouri research team, led by MU scientist Kattesh Katti, curators' professor of radiology and physics in the School of Medicine and the College of Arts and Science, senior research scientist at the University of Missouri Research Reactor and director of the Cancer Nanotechnology Platform, has found a method that could replace nearly all of the toxic chemicals required to make gold nanoparticles. The missing ingredient can be found in nearly every kitchen's spice cabinet – cinnamon.

The usual method of creating gold nanoparticles utilizes harmful chemicals and acids that are not environmentally safe and contain toxic impurities. In the MU study, Katti and researchers Raghuraman Kannan, the Michael J and Sharon R. Bukstein Distinguished Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research, assistant professor of radiology and director of the Nanoparticle Production Core Facility; and Nripen Chanda, a research associate scientist, mixed gold salts with cinnamon and stirred the mixture in water to synthesize gold nanoparticles. The new process uses no electricity and utilizes no toxic agents.

"The procedure we have developed is non-toxic," Kannan said. "No chemicals are used in the generation of gold nanoparticles, except gold salts. It is a true 'green' process."
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[Brian Ellis]

Bizarre! AFAIK, all gold salts that are water-soluble are toxic, mostly hydrates of bromine, chlorine and cyanide.

Cinnamates are uswd industrially for a number of purposes, notably as photoinitiators of resins.

While the nanotechnology industry is expected to produce large quantities of nanoparticles in the near future, researchers have been worried about the environmental impact of the global nanotechnological revolution.

It is worrying, we're still sorcerer's apprentices, not only for the environment but for health, especially organic nanoparticles, as they can cross practically all the barriers in the body, especially blood/brain.

[Dr Mordrid]

A chemist on another forum posted this interesting tidbit;

The Indians have been making gold nanoparticle Ayurvedic bhasma preparations for medicianl and diet purposes for the last 2000+ years using common ingredients such as cinnamon. I do find it interesting as a chemist that only in the last 25 years have we been re-discovering the ancient chemical technologies. Very strange methods were optimized for making the various types of stable nanoparticle dispersions. For example, for nanoparticle iron, the recipe includes: Heated to 850 C & quenched 7 times in olium Sesam,Butter Milk, Cow’s Urine, Sour Gruel, Black gramdecoction and triphalfi respectively.

So, it appears we can add this to digitalis and the rest of a long list of other medicines & preparations used by traditional healers for thousands of years. Here in the States we're even using medicinal leeches again, mainly to enhance circulation in traumatically amputated extremities that have been reattached etc. Some are even using the ancient Egyptian treatment for hard to heal wounds: honey. Dr's here have used it with success on diabetic wounds. Then there is the rediscovered use of brown seaweed to make alginate bandages for wound healing.

Sorcerer's apprentices indeed.