ABSTRACT
This research was aimed to optimize the synthesis of copper oxide (CuO) nanoparticles with the highest antifungalproperties against Candida albicans as an oral fungal pathogen. To this end, nine experiments involving differentsynthesis conditions were designed using the Taguchi method and the copper oxide nanoparticles synthesized bycoprecipitation method. The antifungal activity of synthesized nanoparticles against C. albicans was evaluatedusing the colony forming unit and disk diffusion methods. According to the results, the synthesized copper oxidenanoparticles under the five experimental conditions (CuCl2 0.1 M, NaOH 0.1 M, and a 75 minutes stirring time)showed the highest antifungal activity against C. albicans (71.72%). The optimization results demonstrated thatall three studied factors were effective in improving the antifungal activity of copper oxide nanoparticles and theantifungal activity in the proposed conditions can be improved by 77.85%. The synthesis of nanoparticles in optimalconditions confirmed the improved antifungal activity of the nanoparticles. The results of this study proved that CuOnanoparticles have a potential ability as an antifungal agent against oral fungal pathogens of C. albicans.