Euphorbia heterophylla (L.) mediated fabrication of ZnO NPs: Characterization and evaluation of antibacterial and anticancer properties

Abstract

Abstract Euphorbia heterophylla leaves extract mediated synthesis of multifunctional Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) by green chemistry approaches. The prepared product was well characterized using various analytical tools namely X-ray diffraction (XRD), Ultra Violet-Diffused reflectance spectroscopy (UV-DRS), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), Raman spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Energy dispersive X-ray analysis (EDAX) and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) etc. The XRD pattern of ZnO NPs showed hexagonal phase with wurtzite structure. The UV-DR Spectrum reveled that characteristic peak at 370 nm and its energy band gap was found to be ~3.15 eV indicating the formation of ZnO NPs. The FT-IR spectrum results showed the presence of functional groups. The Raman spectrum showed the presence of phonon modes of vibrations in ZnO NPs. The morphological analysis of ZnO NPs exhibit hexagonal, conical and pyramidal nature with mean particle size of ~40 nm which is in close agreement with XRD pattern. ZnO NPs shows significant antibacterial activity against pathogenic bacterial strains both Gram positive and Gram negative bacteria by agar well diffusion method. Furthermore, the cytotoxicity of ZnO NPs was evaluated against cancer cell lines such as lung (A549) and hepatocellular carcinoma (HepG2) cell lines. Therefore, the study reveals that, the E. heterophylla is an effective reducing agent for the formation of ZnO NPs with significant antibacterial and cytotoxicity properties.