Synthesis, characterization, and evaluation of cytotoxicity, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, and cutaneous wound healing effects of copper nanoparticles using the aqueous extract of Strawberry fruit and l-Ascorbic acid

Abstract

Fragaria ananassa, also known as “Strawberry” is a common species in Iran and widely used for its anti-inflammatory, anti-ulcer, astringent, anti-allergic, antibacterial, antifungal, and antidiarrheal activities and also in the treatment of skin wounds. The purpose of the study was chemical characterization and assessment of cytotoxicity, antioxidant, antifungal, antibacterial, and cutaneous wound healing properties of copper nanoparticles (CuNPs) using the aqueous extract of Strawberry fruit and l-Ascorbic acid as reducing and stabilizing agents. These nanoparticles were characterized by FT-IR, UV–visible spectroscopy, EDS, FE-SEM, and TEM analysis. TEM images exhibited a uniform spherical morphology and diameters of 10–30 nm for the biosynthesized nanoparticles. DPPH free radical scavenging test revealed similar antioxidant properties for Strawberry, CuNPs, and butylated hydroxytoluene. The Strawberry and synthesized CuNPs had great cell viability dose-dependently against HUVEC cell line. In the microbiological part of this study, CuNPs showed higher antibacterial and antifungal properties than all standard antibiotics (p ≤ 0.01). Also, CuNPs prevented the growth of all bacteria at 2–8 mg/mL concentrations and destroyed them at 2–16 mg/mL concentrations (p ≤ 0.01). In the case of antifungal property of CuNPs, they inhibited the growth of all fungi at 2–4 mg/mL concentrations and destroyed them at 2–8 mg/mL concentrations (p ≤ 0.01). In vivo design, the use of CuNPs ointment in the treatment groups substantially remarkably raised (p ≤ 0.01) the wound contracture, hydroxyl proline, hexosamine, hexuronic acid, fibrocyte, and fibrocytes/fibroblast rate and reduced (p ≤ 0.01) the wound area, total cells, neutrophil, macrophage, and lymphocyte compared to Strawberry, CuSO4, tetracycline, Eucerin basal, and untreated control groups. In conclusion, the results of chemical characterization confirm that the Strawberry fruit can be consumed to produce copper nanoparticles with a remarkable amount of remedial effects without any cytotoxicity against HUVECs.