Chemical Composition of Boswellia Dalzielli Leaf and Characterisation of Its Magnetite (Fe3O4) Nanoparticle

Abstract The death toll from cancer, diabetes and other diseases worldwide is increasing daily. The need for urgent and assessable therapies is key to both the scientific community and local population. This study focused on Boswellia dalzielii leaf mediated-magnetite (Fe 3 O 4 ) nanoparticle (Np) synthesis. Ten (10) gram dry powder of Boswellia dalzielii was mixed with 100 mL water and boiled at 90°C for 15 min, cooled and filtered to yield the aqueous extract of Boswellia dalzielii and stored at -4°C until use for nanoparticle synthesis. The leaf of Boswellia dalzielii showed the moisture content of 8.8%, total ash content of 4.08%, crude fiber 16.67%, protein content 23.87%, crude fat 12.86% and 33.78% carbohydrate. Boswellia dalzielii leaf, is a good source of some minerals with the most abundant mineral found to be potassium, 13.29mg/g, phosphorus 4.60mg/g, sodium 4.44mg/g, Ca 3.37mg/g and small quantities of Fe 0.9mg/g, Mg 0.043mg/g, Zn 0.2mg/g, Mn and Cu having 0.1mg/g. Boswellia dalzielii leaf can serve as a source of vitamin B1 and vitamin C when analysed for complete vitamin profile using HPLC. Boswellia dalzielii leaf-mediated magnetite nanoparticle was synthesized and characterized using UV-Visible mass spectrophotometer, and the peak absorbance was around 450 nm was accredited to the existence of Fe 3+ and Fe 2+ ions at the octahedral sites of the Np. Peak amplification owes to the oxygen to metal charge transfer (O 2 − –Fe 3+ ). The FTIR spectrum of the Np exhibited a broad absorption band at 3216 cm − 1 which is attributed to O-H stretching vibrations, indicating the presence of hydroxyl group. Sharp peaks at 2883 cm − 1 and 2827 cm − 1 corresponds to C-H stretching of aliphatic groups. Strong peaks in the region between 2020 − 1994 cm − 1 were observed, which is characteristics of C = C = C stretching vibrations in alkene. High-resolution transmission electron microscope (HRTEM) coupled with selected area electron diffraction (SAED) observed the particle size with a mean size of 20 nm. There is uniform size distribution, shape with concentric bright circles consisting of small dots confirming that the Boswellia dalzielii leaf-mediated Fe 3 O 4 synthesized is highly crystalline.