Kavita Katti

The PhysOrg article Researchers go nano, natural, and green said

In 2002, U.S. farmers harvested 2.7 billion bushels of soybeans. Last year in Missouri, farmers harvested 194 million bushels of soybeans worth about $1.2 billion. Now, a team of researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia is turning those soybeans into gold, with nothing more than a little water.
 
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, soybeans, and water. No other chemicals are used in the process, which means this new process could have major environmental implications for the future.
 
Gold nanoparticles are tiny pieces of gold, so small that they cannot be seen by the naked eye. Researchers believe that gold nanoparticles will be used in cancer detection and treatment and in the production of “smart” electronic devices in the computer and telecommunications industry. While the nanotechnology industry is expected to produce large quantities of nanoparticles in the near future, researchers have been worried about the environmental impact of the global nanotechnological revolution.
 
Since a variety of synthetic chemicals are needed to complete the formation of the gold nanoparticles, the MU research team turned to Mother Nature for assistance. 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. This process creates nanoparticles that are uniform in size in a 100 percent green process.

Kavita Katti is Senior Research Chemist, Department of Radiology, University of Missouri.
 
Kavita coauthored In Vitro and In Vivo antitumor Properties of Tetrakis(trishydroxymethyl phosphine) Gold(I) Chloride, Synthesis and characterization of a neutral and lipophilic Ph₃PN^99mTcO₃ complex, Characterization of Supramolecular (H₂O)₁₈ Water Morphology and Water-Methanol (H₂O)₁₅(CH₃OH)₃ Clusters in a Novel Phosphorus Functionalized Trimeric Amino Acid Host, Nanocompatible Chemistry toward Fabrication of Target-Specific Gold Nanoparticles, Unprecedented rhodium-mediated catalytic transfer hydrogenation of a phosphonate functionalized olefin in ecofriendly media, and Gold nanoparticles for imaging and therapy of prostate cancer. Read the full list of her publications!
 
Kavita holds the patents Hydroxyalkyl phosphine compounds for use as diagnostic and therapeutic pharmaceuticals, Methods and articles for gold nanoparticle production, Compounds for treatment of copper overload.
 
Read Nanoparticles Show Promise in Cancer Detection and Treatment.