Date palm pollen: A novel medium for bacterial culture and biosynthesis of antibacterial chromium oxide nanoparticles

Medical companies and research centers seek cost-effective alternative culture media containing the necessary nutritional requirements for bacterial cultivation because of high manufacturing and production costs. Date palm pollen (DPP) is an inexpensive and rich natural plant resource that can be easily collected in large quantities. In this study, DPP was used to prepare a novel enriched culture medium that successfully cultivated pathogenic bacteria and Streptomyces spp. without any additives and at a low concentration of 10 g per 1 L of distilled water (DW). Active compounds in DPP were detected by GCMS–, and results show the highest ratio of urea (45 %) among other components. For the first time, DPP was used to synthesize Cr2O3 NPs by an environment-friendly and inexpensive green method. DPP urea plays an important role as a reducing and stabilizing agent in the biosynthesis of Cr2O3 NPs. The obtained NPs were characterized using UV–Vis, FTIR, XRD and SEM. The results of agar disk diffusion ranging between 12 – 20 mm while the MIC for Cr2O3 NPs ranging between 1.56 – 25 U/mL indicated the effectiveness of Cr2O3 NPs in antibacterial activity against a wide range of pathogenic bacteria. Cr2O3 NPs showed a high inhibition ratio that reach 78 % against biofilms produced by P. aeruginosa. For later studies we expect that DPP can be used to prepare selective and other culture media after adding certain materials or antibiotics. The antibacterial and anti-biofilm activity of Cr2O3 NPs could be promising in medical and pharmaceutical applications.