Citrus Peels-Mediated Green Fabrication of Silver Nanoparticles: A study on Antibacterial and Cytotoxic Efficacy
Abstract
Nanotechnology has emerged as a versatile approach for the synthesis of nanomaterials, with green synthesis gaining considerable attention as an eco-friendly and sustainable method. Plant-based synthesis utilizes readily available, low-cost, and less hazardous plant extracts rich in bioactive compounds for the efficient production of nanoparticles. The objectives of current research were to fabricate silver nanoparticles using peels of various citrus fruits including lemon, grape fruit and orange and to exploit their biotherapeutic effects specifically antimicrobial and anticancer efficacy. Synthesized-nanoparticles were screened for antimicrobial activity using agar-well diffusion method. For cytotoxicity evaluation of silver nanoparticles, MTT assay was used on Human Breast Cancer Cell Lines (MCF-7). FTIR was done to assess the functional groups in fabricated nanoparticles. According to antimicrobial profiling of citrus fruit peel extracts, it was noticed that GfP-AgNPs (grape fruit) exhibited strong antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, (30.33 ± 0.44 mm), Klebsiella pneumoniae (29.8 ± 0.85 mm) and Enterococcus faecalis (30.7 ± 0.86 mm) as compared to LeP-AgNPs (lemon) and OrP-AgNPs (orange). Cytotoxicity analysis revealed that LeP-AgNPs (100 μg/mL) displayed highest inhibition (84.24 %) with declined malignant cell viability of 15.76 ± 0.10 %, > OrP-AgNPs with inhibition rate of 75.35% and 24.65 ± 0.26 % cell viability> GfP-AgNPs with 73.16% inhibition and 26.84 ±0.13% cell viability. FTIR spectra of all synthesized silver nanoparticles from citrus fruit peel extracts showed the presence of polyphenols, alkaloids, and polysaccharides. The study demonstrated that silver nanoparticles synthesized from citrus fruit peels possess significant potential as promising candidates for novel drug formulations. However, it is extremely important to carry out a full range of in vivo studies to validate the results and ensure that the synthesized silver nanoparticles are safe, bio-compatible, and have no toxicological effects on animals.