A study on the anticancer and antimicrobial activity of Curcumin nanodispersion and synthesized ZnO nanoparticles

Abstract

Curcumin is an essential natural bioactive component with a wide range of biological applications, possessing advantages and disadvantages. The main drawback of Curcumin is its poor bioavailability due to its poor aqueous solubility. In this paper, Curcumin nanodispersion and synthesized ZnO nanoparticles with Curcumin nanodispersion (ZnO NPs) at pH = 7 and 10 were compared to increase bioavailability. This work aimed to investigate the bioavailability measurement, antimicrobial activities, and anticancer features of Curcumin nanodispersion and synthesized ZnO NPs. The SEM images showed that the size of ZnO NPs was nanoscales with 10–100 nm particles. Furthermore, DLS analysis revealed that the average particle size of the prepared Curcumin nanodispersion and synthesized ZnO NPs were 32 and 85 nm, respectively. The results of this investigation exhibit that prepared samples have high antibacterial and antifungal characteristics. Analyzing the cytotoxicity of prepared samples via MTT assay in HT-29 cancer cells and L929 mouse fibroblast cells revealed higher cellular inhibition and better bioavailability of Curcumin nanodispersion, along with ZnO NPs at a pH of 7, compared to pure Curcumin. The viability percentage of HT-29 cancer cells against pure Curcumin, Curcumin nanodispersion, and synthesized ZnO at pH equal to 7 and 10 for 72 h of incubation were 94%, 18%, 14%, and 35%, respectively. However, synthesized ZnO NPs at a pH of approximately 10 exhibited high toxicity on the L929 mouse fibroblast cells. It was concluded that Curcumin nanodispersion possesses antimicrobial and anticancer activities, which could be used in food industry applications.