Sustainable green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Sambucus ebulus phenolic extract (AgNPs@SEE): Optimization and assessment of photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange and their in vitro antibacterial and anticancer activity

The biogenic approach in the synthesis of nanoparticles provides an efficient alternative to the chemical synthesis system. Furthermore, the ecofriendly synthesis of metallic nanoparticles is developing rapidly due to its wide applications in sciences. In this research, metallic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were biosynthesized using Sambucus ebulus (S. ebulus; AgNPs@SEE) extract for the evaluation of efficient antibacterial, anticancer, and photocatalyst activities. The reaction parameters including temperatures, contact time, and AgNO3 concentration were discussed and optimized. The optimized nanoparticles (AgNPs@SEE) showed cubic structure, spherical morphology with the average size of 35–50 nm. The photocatalytic performance of AgNPs was assessed by degradation of methyl orange at different concentrations of AgNPs@SEE (10 and 15 µl) under sun-light irradiation. About 95.89% of the pollutant was degraded (after 11 min), when 10 μl of nanocatalyst used. Also, the degradation of contaminant increased (about 95.47% after 7 min) by increasing the nanoparticle concentration to 20 μl. All in all, the results showed that the percentage of pollutant degradation increased with increasing the concentration of nanocatalyst. Furthermore, anticancer activity of AgNPs@SEE on human cancer cell lines (AGS and MCF-7), and antibacterial activity on both Gram-positive and Gram-negative microorganisms were studied. The synthesized AgNPs@SEE exhibited superior performance on cancer cell lines and effective antibacterial properties against Gram-positive microorganisms (like MIC value of 1.5 µg/ml for S. aureus) than Gram-negative microorganisms. All these investigations revealed that silver nanoparticles synthesized by natural extract have the potential to use as low-cost and efficient nanoparticles for environmental and biomedical applications

Cytotoxicity, antifungal, antioxidant, antibacterial and photodegradation potential of silver nanoparticles mediated via Medicago sativa extract

The biosynthesis of metallic nanoparticles is on a sharp rise as they have growing applications in environmental and biomedical sciences. This study reports an eco-friendly and cost-effective methodology for synthesizing biogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using the extract of Medicago sativa (M. sativa) cultivated in South Khorasan. The parameters used in the synthesis process were optimized to obtain uniformly distributed AgNPs in suitable sizes. The morphological, structural, and bonding characteristics of M. sativa extract-based AgNPs (MSE-AgNPs) were explored using FTIR, FESEM, EDS, TEM, XRD, UV–Vis, and DLS techniques. UV–Vis spectroscopy confirmed the formation of MSE-AgNPs by observing the typical surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peak at 419 nm. XRD, FESEM, TEM, and DLS analyses confirmed the formation of face-centered cubic (fcc) crystalline structure, spherical/elliptical morphology, the average particle size of 15–35 nm, and highly stable MSE-AgNPs. Green synthesized MSE-AgNPs indicated a significant antioxidant activity (78%) compared to M. sativa extract (32%). As such, the synthesized MSE-AgNPs revealed a potential antioxidant activity towards the DPPH radicals. The biologically synthesized MSE-AgNPs exhibited highly potential antibacterial and antifungal activities against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus epidermidis, Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, and Candida albicans with the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values of 62.5, 125, 125, 1000, 125, 1000, and 31.25 µg/mL, respectively. In vitro cytotoxicity of the MSE-AgNPs against human fibroblast (HF) cells indicated a dose–response activity (with IC50 value of 18 µg/mL). Moreover, the AgNPs revealed efficient photocatalytic degradation of thymol blue (TB) as an anionic dye and malachite green (MG) as a cationic dye under sunlight and UV irradiations. Up to 94.37% and 90.12% degradation rates were obtained for MG and TB within only 100 min of UV irradiation. These observations signify that synthesized MSE-AgNPs can have great potential for biological and environmental applications

Optimization and evaluation of anticancer, antifungal, catalytic, and antibacterial activities: Biosynthesis of spherical-shaped gold nanoparticles using Pistacia vera hull extract (AuNPs@PV)

In the past years, use of plant sources for the biosynthesis of nanoparticles has become very important. Gold nanoparticles with unique biological properties are one of these materials which are being investigated extensively. In the present study, the aqueous extract of Pistacia vera hull was utilized to fabrication of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs@PV) in a facile, environmentally friendly, and affordable way. Then the anticancer, antifungal, antibacterial, and photocatalytic potentials of AuNPs@PV were also investigated. The results of various techniques applied, including XRD, UV–vis, TEM, FT-IR, EDS, and FESEM showed the biological reduction of Au³⁺ ions to Au⁰. Antibacterial studies were performed on a wide range of bacteria including seven strains of ATCC and seven strains of drug-resistant pathogens. According to the findings of this research, it seems that biosynthesized gold nanoparticles had good antibacterial activity against ATCC and drug-resistant strains of bacteria. The MIC values of E. coli, S. aureus, P. mirabilis, P. aeruginosa, E. faecalis, K. pneumonia, A. baumannii were 34.37, 4.2, 8.59, 4.29, 0.5, 34.37, and 8.59 μg/mL, respectively. The result of the antifungal investigation showed that two pathogenic fungi, Candida albicans (IFRC1873) and Candida albicans (IFRC1874) were susceptible to AuNPs@PV with MIC values of 550 and 137 μg/mL, respectively. Furthermore, AuNPs@PV revealed noteworthy anticancer efficacy against AGS-3 and MCF-7 cell lines with IC50 values of 58.31 and 148.1 μg/mL, respectively. The results of the cytotoxicity effect of AuNPs@PV on BEAS-2B as a normal cell line indicated the selectivity of AuNPs@PV on cancerous cells. Furthermore, the fabricated AuNPs@PV under UV irradiation exhibited significant potential in the decolorization of methylene orange (MO) with a percent decolorization of 91.5 % after 20 min. Therefore, it can be concluded that biosynthesized gold nanoparticles as a photocatalyst, anti-bacterial, antifungal, and anti-cancer agents have potential applications in the fields of environment and biology

Biosynthesis of novel NiFe₁₂O₁₉-X (X = ZnO and TiO₂) magnetic nanophotocatalyst toward the degradation pharmaceutical ceftriaxone sodium from aqueous solution under sunlight irradiation and antibacterial activity

Since antibiotics are used in various sciences, the occurrence of antibiotics in the water environments has drawn significant concerns in recent years. In this study, novel NiFe₁₂O₁₉ coupled ZnO and TiO₂ (NiFe₁₂O₁₉-X; X = ZnO and TiO₂) were synthesized via a green route, and their photocatalytic properties were assessed. Crataegus microphylla fruit extract was used as a natural capping agent to obtain regular and homogeneous products. The as-synthesized nanocomposites were characterized by various analyzes, including TEM, EDS, DRS, FT-IR, XRD, FESEM, and VSM. The analysis confirmed that the biosynthesized nanocomposites had spherical and oval-like morphologies, with a crystallite size of about 50–70 nm, narrow bandgap, and super paramagnetic properties. Band-gap calculated using UV-DRS (2.95 eV and 3.03 eV) shows that NiFe₁₂O₁₉–ZnO and NiFe₁₂O₁₉–TiO₂ are good candidate for photocatalytic degradation. Ceftriaxone sodium (CFX) as the model contaminant was tested to assess the photocatalytic performance of the biosynthesized magnetic nanocomposite under UV and sunlight irradiations. The effect of critical parameters including nanocatalyst dose (0.08, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.6 g/L), pH (5, 7, and 10), CFX initial concentration (10, 25, 50, and 100 mg/L), and light source (UV and sunlight) were studied to achieve the optimum degradation of ceftriaxone sodium. Under optimum conditions, the biosynthesized NiFe₁₂O₁₉–ZnO and NiFe₁₂O₁₉–TiO₂ photocatalyst revealed excellent performance in the degradation of the CFX compound with an evaluated efficiency of 98.47% and 95.45% under UV irradiation, respectively. Also, the percentage of antibiotic degradation for these materials was 79.15% and 76.62%, respectively, under sunlight irradiation. Furthermore, the antibacterial characteristic features of the prepared nanocomposite against gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria were satisfactory. After careful examination of the results and diagrams, the suggested NiFe₁₂O₁₉-X (X = ZnO and TiO₂) nanocomposites might be applied in a water treatment plant to eliminate the danger of pharmaceutical waste in the aqueous medium

Novel Dy2O3/ZnO-Au ternary nanocomposites: Green synthesis using pomegranate fruit extract, characterization and their photocatalytic and antibacterial properties

In this study for the first time, high efficient, eco-friendly and novel Dy2O3/ZnO-Au ternary nanocomposites (Dy/ZnO-AuNCs) were prepared in presence of pomegranate fruit (PF) extract as capping and reducing agents (Dy/ZnO-AuNCs@PF). The influence of various parameters such as basic agents, reducing agents, sonication power, and sonication time were performed to reach the optimum condition. The formation of the products was characterized by FT-IR, HRTEM, XRD, FE-SEM, TEM, EDX and DRS techniques. The XRD and TEM analysis showed that the morphology and crystallite size of nanocomposites were spherical morphology and 85–90 nm, respectively. The obtained Dy/ZnO-AuNCs@PF were investigated as a nanocatalyst for degradation of erythrosine (ES) as anionic dye and basic violet 10 (BV10) as cationic dye under UV and visible light irradiations. The Dy/ZnO-AuNCs@PF exhibited higher photodegradation against ES (89.6%) and BV10 (91.3%) than pure Dy2O3 (63.1% for ES, 66.5% for BV10) and Dy2O3/ZnO (64.5% for ES, 70.8% for BV10) under UV irradiation. It was found that gold nanoparticles have significant effect on Dy/ZnO-AuNCs@PF catalytic performance for decomposition of organic pollutants. In addition, Dy/ZnO-AuNCs@PF showed excellent in-vitro antibacterial activity against A. baumannii, S. aureus and P. mirabilis with MIC and MBC values of (5, 80 mg/ml), (5, 40 mg/ml) and (2.5, 20 mg/ml), respectively. Generally, according to its excellent antibacterial and catalytic activity, Dy/ZnO-AuNCs@PF can be used in biomedical and environmental applications

Biogenic and eco-benign synthesis of silver nanoparticles using jujube core extract and its performance in catalytic and pharmaceutical applications: Removal of industrial contaminants and in-vitro antibacterial and anticancer activities

Biosynthesis of nanoparticles has been rapidly developed in various fields, due to their broad spectrum of applications in the fields of environmental, pharmacology, and medicine. In this study, facile, rapid, eco-friendly and cost-effective method was used to green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using jujube core extract (AgNPs-JCE) and then used as antibacterial, anticancer and catalytic agents. The reaction parameters such as AgNO 3 concentration (1, 5, 10, 20 and 40 mM), reaction time (5, 30 and 60 min) and pH (without pH, 10 and 12) were discussed and optimized. The surface plasmon resonance peak at about 420 nm in the UV–Vis absorption spectrum confirmed the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles. Microscopic results revealed that the synthesized AgNPs-JCE were spherical in morphology with a size range of 25–35 nm.In addition, the subject AgNPs promising catalytic properties in the degradation of pollutants including rhodamine b (RhB) and eriochrome black T (EBT) as cationic and anionic contaminant under UV and visible light irradiations. The photocatalyst (AgNPs-JCE) exhibited the degradation of 90.9 % and 84.7% for RhB and EBT contaminants after 80 min under UV irradiation, respectively. The antibacterial activities of AgNPs-JCE was checked against E. coli as Gram-positive bacteria and K. pneumoniae and S. aureus as Gram-negative bacteria with MIC and MBC values of (1.26 and 1.26 g/ml), (2.5 and 2.5 g/ml), and (2.5 and 10 g/ml), respectively. Finally, the cytotoxicity of synthesized nanoparticles against AGS as human stomach cancer cell line was determined at several concentrations (2.5, 5, 10, 20, 50, and 100 g/ml) using MTT assay. Finding of this research suggested the suitability of AgNPs-JCE as pollutants degradation, antibacterial and anticancer drug development

Anticancer and antibacterial activity against clinical pathogenic multi-drug resistant bacteria using biosynthesized silver nanoparticles with Mentha pulegium and Crocus caspius extracts

The utilization of environmentally friendly synthesized nanoparticles (NPs) has gained significant popularity due to their versatile applications. In this study, silver nanoparticles were synthesized utilizing Mentha pulegium (M. pulegium; MP-AgNPs) and Crocus caspius (C. caspius; CC-AgNPs) extracts, without the need for chemical stabilizers or surfactants. The green synthesis process carefully controlled critical parameters such as concentration, reaction time, temperature, and pH of the medium. Characterization of the biosynthesized AgNPs involved various techniques including FESEM, EDS, XRD, TEM, and UV–Vis analysis. The X-ray diffraction patterns revealed that the average sizes of MP-AgNPs and CC-AgNPs were found to be 34.5 nm and 47.2 nm, respectively, which were consistent with the transmission electron microscopy results. The antibacterial activity of the AgNPs was evaluated against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogens, demonstrating maximum efficacy against E. coli and K. pneumonia, with a MIC value of 0.4 µg/ml for MP-AgNPs. Additionally, CC-AgNPs exhibited the highest effectiveness against P. aeruginosa, A. baumannii, and K. pneumonia, with a MIC value of 2 µg/ml. Furthermore, the biosynthesized AgNPs displayed potent antibacterial activity against multi-drug resistant bacteria. The anticancer activity of the AgNPs was investigated on MCF-7 (breast cancer) and AGS (human gastric carcinoma) cell lines using the MTT assay. The results indicated that AgNPs inhibited cancer cell proliferation within a concentration range of 0.5–60 µg/ml. Overall, this study highlights the potential wide-ranging applications of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles as biological agents, presenting a possible substitute for chemically synthesized drugs. The eco-friendly synthesis approach and the demonstrated antibacterial and anticancer activities further support the use of these nanoparticles in various biomedical applications

Biogenic synthesis of spherical-shaped noble metal nanoparticles using Vicia faba extract (X@VF, X = Au, Ag) for photocatalytic degradation of organic hazardous dye and their in vitro antifungal, antibacterial and anticancer activities

In recent years, industrial wastewater pollution, including organic pollution and harmful bacteria, has endangered the health of humans and other organisms. For this purpose, we designed an eco-friendly and cost-effective technique for the synthesis of noble metal nanoparticles using natural reducing, stabilizing, and capping agents. In the present study, gold (AuNPs@VF) and silver nanoparticles (AgNPs@VF) were synthesized using the extract of Vicia faba, and evaluated for catalytic, antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer activities. Optimizing synthesis conditions (pH, temperature, reaction time, and concentration) for the best outcomes was conducted. The synthesized AuNPs@VF and AgNPs@VF were characterized using UV–Vis, XRD, EDS, TEM, and FESEM. The homogeneous, oval-spherical morphology and regular products with a size in the range of 30–60 nm were observed from XRD and FESEM techniques. The photocatalytic performance of AuNPs@VF and AgNPs@VF were calculated by degradation of methyl orange (MO) pollution under UV-light irradiation. The AuNPs@VF (91.4%) and AgNPs@VF (80.4%) showed high photocatalytic degradation in the shortest possible time. In order to evaluate antifungal, antibacterial, and drug resistance activities, seven ATCC bacteria (gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria), resistant pathogens strains, and eight fungal strains were selected. The results showed that among these two metal nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles showed a very high antibacterial activity, which can be considered an antibacterial agent. This is despite the fact that the antifungal activity of gold nanoparticles was better than silver nanoparticles. Moreover, the cytotoxicity effects of AuNPs@VF and AgNPs@VF on MCF-7, AGS-3, and normal Beas-2B cell lines were examined by MTT assay. The cytotoxicity result showed that the biosynthesized AuNPs@VF and AgNPs@VF displayed a significant dose-dependent inhibitory effect with IC50 values of 58.65, 46.38 µg/mL on MCF-7 and 22.91, 9.73 µg/mL on AGS-3, respectively compared cisplatin as the positive control. Also, the results showed that the synthesized nanoparticles acted selectively on the normal cell and were safe on the human epithelial cells

In-vitro anticancer and antibacterial activities and comparative of eco-friendly synthesized silver nanoparticles using hull of Pistacia vera and rhizome of Sambucus ebulus extracts

The biogenic method of synthesizing nanoparticles offers an effective alternative to traditional chemical synthesis systems. Additionally, the rapid development of eco-friendly techniques for producing metallic nanoparticles is driven by their extensive applications in various scientific fields. The present study investigated the production of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using hull of Pistacia vera (PV-AgNPs) and rhizomes of Sambucus ebulus (SE-AgNPs) extracts. The eco-friendly synthesis of Ag nanoparticles was carried out by optimizing three physicochemical parameters, including silver salt concentration, temperature, and pH. Biogenic silver nanoparticles were characterized using several analytical techniques, including FESEM, EDS, XRD, TEM and UV–Vis. The average sizes of PV-AgNPs and SE-AgNPs were determined to be 19.32 nm and 15.63 nm, respectively, using X-ray diffraction patterns. These findings were consistent with the results obtained from scanning electron microscopy. The antibacterial efficacy of AgNPs was evaluated against both Gram-negative and Gram-positive pathogens. AgNPs exhibited the highest antibacterial activity against S. aureus and E. faecalis, with a minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) value of 12.5 µg/ml for PV-AgNPs. Additionally, for SE-AgNPs, the MIC value against S. aureus was found to be 2 µg/ml, indicating a potent antibacterial effect. Moreover, the anticancer potential of AgNPs was assessed using the MTT assay on MCF-7 (breast cancer) and AGS (human gastric carcinoma) cell lines as representative cancer cell models. The IC50 value of SE-AgNPs on MCF-7 and AGS was found to be 24.3 and 32.5 μg/ml, respectively. Hence, the present study indicates that biologically synthesized AgNPs have significant potential for exploitation in various biological applications

Unlocking the therapeutic potential: Green synthesized zinc oxide/silver nanoparticles from Sophora pachycarpa for anticancer activity, gene expression analysis, and antibacterial applications

Hematologic malignancies and bloodstream infections rank among the most lethal medical conditions. Research on new treatments for these diseases is crucial. In this study, we investigated the anticancer properties and molecular mechanisms of zinc oxide nanoparticles doped with silver synthesized using a green approach involving Sophora pachycarpa (S. pachycarpa) plant seed extract (SPS@ZnO/Ag NPs). Additionally, we explored the antibacterial effects of these nanoparticles and S. pachycarpa extract. The SPS@ZnO/Ag NPs were characterized using XRD, FTIR, zeta potential, EDS, FESEM, and TEM analyses. Subsequently, we assessed the viability of K562 cells in the presence of different nanoparticles and extract. Molecular mechanisms underlying cell death were examined through flow cytometry analysis, Hoechst staining, and relative expression of pro-apoptotic genes (Apaf-1, Cytochrome c, Caspases 3, 6, 9) relative to the gene B-actin. Also, BAX/BCL2 ratio was determined. Antibacterial effects were evaluated against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. The results confirmed successful synthesis of spherical SPS@ZnO/Ag NPs with positive surface charge, purity, and size ranging from 50 to 65 nm. SPS@ZnO/Ag NPs significantly reduced K562 cell viability compared to S. pachycarpa extract and chemical nanoparticles, with the 1:1 ratio of zinc oxide and silver nitrate exhibiting the highest cell death. The findings from flow cytometry analysis, Hoechst staining, and molecular pathway analysis indicate that SPS@ZnO/Ag NPs induce cancer cell death through apoptosis. Evaluation of antibacterial properties demonstrated the destruction of all studied strains by SPS@ZnO/Ag NPs. Overall, our study demonstrates that green synthesis, in comparison to chemical synthesis, exerts a notable impact on the anticancer properties of zinc oxide nanoparticles doped with silver. Moreover, SPS@ZnO/Ag NPs exhibit targeted induction of cancer cell apoptosis, showcasing their potential application in biomedical fields