Antifungal assay

Comparative antimicrobial activity of Ag NPs, ZnO NPs and Ag@ZnO NC was investigated against Candida krusei. Fungal growth inhibition was performed by inoculating 1 × 10⁶ CFUs of C. Krusei cells into 20 mL of PDB with different concentrations (0, 50, 100, 250, 500, 1000 μg/mL) of nanomaterials and incubated in shaking incubator at 30 °C in 200 rpm for 24 h. Then 100 μL of sample was taken at 3 h interval and serially diluted (10⁻¹ to 10⁻³) in normal saline solution (0.9% NaCl). Samples were taken from 10⁻³ dilution and plating was done on PDA by drop plate method to determine inhibition of cell growth by CFU assay. The Minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) for each of the above mentioned nanomateirals was determined by considering the lowest concentration of the materials which could completely inhibit the growth of C. krusei.