The nanotech revolution is going green in an amazing way. Soon, gold
nanoparticles, one of the darling materials of the new science field, could
be made by utilizing soybeans instead of environmentally damaging synthetic
chemicals. A team of researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia (MU)
has discovered a technique with which to literally turn soybeans into gold,
with nothing more than a little water and the gold salts used in traditional
nanoparticle production processes.
The green discovery has created a large positive response in the
scientific community. It sets up the beginning of a new knowledge frontier
that interfaces plant science, chemistry and nanotechnology. Some are
jubilant because the discovery will ensure that gold nanoparticles-based
nanomedicine products would be made available even to the less developed
regions of the world where farmers grow the renewable biomass needed to make
the material.

MU researchers Kattesh Katti, Raghuraman Kannan, and Kavita Katti led
a team of scientists that have discovered how to make gold nanoparticles
using gold salts, the carbohydrates contained in soybeans and water. No
other chemicals are used in the process, which means it could have major
environmental implications for the future.

Researchers believe that gold nanoparticles are set to be used in a
large number of new processes and products, from the capture of toxins and
lethal microbes to solar cells, cancer therapies, next generations of
computer and telecommunications tools, and in the production of 'smart'
electronic devices and sensors. By making them from renewable biomass the
bioeconomy receives another boost.

Kattesh Katti, professor of radiology and physics in MU's School of
Medicine, senior research scientist at MURR, director of the University of
Missouri Cancer Nanotechnology Platform and one of the fathers of the use of
gold nanoparticles in nanomedicine comments on the advantages of the green
process his team developed:

Typically, a producer must use a variety of synthetic or man-made
chemicals to produce gold nanoparticles. In addition, to make the chemicals
necessary for production, you need to have other artificial chemicals
produced, creating an even larger, negative environmental impact. Our new
process only takes what nature has made available to us and uses that to
produce a technology that has already proven to have far-reaching impacts in
technology and medicine.

Gold nanoparticles are tiny pieces of gold, so small that they cannot
be seen by the naked eye. While the nanotechnology industry is expected to
produce large quantities of the particles in the near future, researchers
have been worried about the environmental impact of the global
nanotechnological revolution.

To complete the formation of gold nanoparticles, harmful synthetic
chemicals such as hydrazine, sodium borohydride and dimethyl formamide are
needed in lengthy synthetic processes. These chemicals pose handling,
storage, and transportation risks that add substantial cost and difficulty
to gold nanoparticle production. These harmful chemicals also make it
impractical, if not impossible, to produce gold nanoparticles in-vivo.

The MU research team turned to Mother Nature for assistance and
alternatives. Amazingly, they found that by submersing gold salts in water
and then adding soybeans, gold nanoparticles were generated. The water pulls
a phytochemical(s) out of the soybean that is effective in reducing the gold
to nanoparticles. A second phytochemical(s) from the soybean, also pulled
out by the water, then interacts with the nanoparticles to stabilize them
and keep them from fusing with the particles nearby. The process creates
nanoparticles that are uniform in size in a 100 percent green process. This
fits with what we need to do for the future. We are solving a pollution
problem at the very beginning stages of a developing technology. We don't
anticipate any waste or byproducts from this new process that would not be
biodegradable. Every one of these compounds involved in the process already
exists in nature. - Raghuraman Kannan, assistant professor of radiology

The new discovery has created a very large positive response in the
scientific community. Researchers from as far away as Germany have been
commenting on the discovery's importance and the impact it will have in the
future.

Soy is grown worldwide and Dr. Katti's Nobel Prize winning discovery
will ensure that gold nanoparticles-based Nanomedicine products would be
made available even to the less developed regions of the world. - B. R.
Barwale, 1998 winner of the world food prize and founder of Maharashtra
Hybrid Seeds Company in India

Dr. Katti's discovery sets up the beginning of a new knowledge
frontier that interfaces plant science, chemistry and nanotechnology. -
Herbert W. Roesky, a professor and world renowned chemist from the
University of Goettingen in Germany

Katti, Kannan, Henry White, MU professor of physics, and Kavita Katti,
a senior research chemist, have filed a patent for the new process and
developed a new company, Greennano Company, which focuses on development,
commercialization and world wide supply of green nanoparticles for medical
and technological applications.

Dr. Katti's novel methodology to develop gold nanoparticles with soy
will have important implications as the field of nanotechnology blossoms and
has greater needs for 'green' synthesis of gold based nanoparticles. It is a
very important first step. - Sam Gambhir, director of the Center for Cancer
Nanotechnology Excellence at Stanford University

The research team includes Kattesh and Kavita Katti, Kannan,
post-doctoral scientists Satish Nune and Nripin Chanda, and Mizzou graduate
student Swapna Mekapothula. The research was funded by grants from the
National Cancer Institute. Katti recently presented the work at the annual
National Cancer Institute Alliance for Nanotechnology in Cancer
Investigator's meeting in October. He also will be presenting the research
at the Fourth International Congress of Nanotechnology and the Clean Tech
World Congress held in San Francisco in early November.

The discovery also could open doors for additional medical fields, as
some of the chemicals used to make nanoparticles are toxic to humans. Having
a 100 percent natural process could allow medical researchers to expand the
use of the nanoparticles.

Dr. Katti's discovery of green and non-toxic gold nanoparticles is a
significant step to help alleviate the pain and suffering of patients with
Pseudoxanthoma elasticum (PXE) says Frances Bernham, president of the
National Association of Pseudoxanthoma elasticum. PXE causes changes in the
retina of the eye that results in significant loss of central vision.

The application of soy for the production of gold nanoparticles is
amazing. It shows for the first time that chemicals within soy are capable
of producing gold nanoparticles. This clearly marks the beginning of a new
field of 'Phytochemical-Nanoscience' and opens up a new pathway for
discoveries in nanotechnology. This invention will have far-reaching
implications in nanoscience and technology research globally since
nanoparticles of gold are used in almost every sensor design and are
implicated in life sciences for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. -
Puspendu Das, physical chemistry professor at the Indian Institute of
Science Bangalore.

[biopact.com]