Nanoparticles Essay

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Nanoparticles are defined as particulate materials with at least one dimension of less than 100 nanometers (nm), even the particles could be zero dimension in the case of quantum dots (Bar et al., 2009). Metal nanoparticles have been of great interest due to their distinctive features such as catalytic, optical, magnetic and electrical properties (Rassaei et al., 2008).
Nanoparticles present a high surface area to volume ratio with decrease in the size of the particles. Specific surface area is relevant to catalytic activity and other related properties such as the antimicrobial activity (Bae et al., 2010). As the specific surface area of nanoparticles is increased, their biological effectiveness will also increase on the count of a rise in surface area (Mukunthan et al., 2011). Nanoparticles of noble metals, such as silver, gold and platinum are widely applied in products that directly come in contact with human body, such as shampoos, soaps, detergents, shoes, cosmetic products and toothpaste, besides medical and pharmaceutical applications (Mukunthan et al., 2011).
Catharanthus roseus, commonly known as the Madagascar periwinkle, is a species of Catharanthus native and endemic to Madagascar. Other English names occasionally used include Cape periwinkle, rose periwinkle, rosy periwinkle, and "old-maid".
It is an evergreen subshrub or herbaceous plant growing to 1 m tall. The leaves are oval to oblong, 2.5–9 cm long and 1–3.5 cm broad, glossy green, hairless, with a pale midrib and a short petiole 1–1.8 cm long; they are arranged in opposite pairs. The flowers are white to dark pink with a darker red centre, with a basal tube 2.5–3 cm long and a corolla 2–5 cm diameter with five petal-like lobes. The fruit is a pair of fol...

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HT-29 is a colorectal cancer cells. Colorectal cancer was the second most common cancer after breast cancer. It is reported to be the first among male and also second among female in Peninsular Malaysia. A total of 2,866 cases were registered with NCR in 2006 and represent 13.2 % of all cases registered. The incidence of colorectal cancer in Peninsular Malaysia increased with age with the overall ASR was 18.4 per 100,000 populations. Thirty percent of the patients have advance disease at presentation, either locally or at distant sites. In this setting, chemotherapy remains the only viable therapeutic option. However, this option also was severely slowed down by the metastatic colon cancer that is resistances to many currently used anticancer agents. Therefore, it is very crucial to develop a new potential therapeutic product for the purpose of treating cancer.

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