Pomegranate fruit fleshy pericarp mediated silver nanoparticles possessing antimicrobial, antibiofilm formation, antioxidant, biocompatibility and anticancer activity

Abstract

Till now, the exact toxicity and mechanism of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) synthesized from plant extracts is an unsolved problem. To address this problem, this work has aimed to synthesize AgNPs using pomegranate fruit fleshy pericarp (Pfp-AgNPs). The absorption band of AgNPs was observed at 382 nm with an average size of 68 nm. FTIR confirmed the presence of C–N, C–O, aromatics, alkynes, halides, alkynes C–H in pomegranate fruit flesh mediated AgNPs and they acted as stabilizing agents. The AgNPs have shown significant antibacterial activity by inducing potassium leakage and cellular leakage from bacterial cells. The Pfp-AgNPs have proven to be compatible with the blood of goat, sheep, and humans. Pfp-AgNPs caused a delay in blood coagulation although there were no morphological changes observed in the blood. Also, AgNPs had shown potent antioxidant activity which is similar to butylated hydroxytoluene and ascorbic acid. AgNPs exhibited less toxicity on L929 normal cell lines when compared to cancer cell lines such as MCF-7 and HeLa which exhibited far higher toxicity. and significantly potent anticancer property on MCF-7 and HeLa cell lines. The pomegranate fruit fleshy pericarp acts as a natural agent to synthesize AgNPs which may possibly gain attention to treat P. aeruginosa infection and as an anticancer agent, significant property such as thrombolytic and fibrinolytic in the near future after in vivo validation.