Abstract
Cancer is considered as one of the relatively high mortality diseases to humankind and the search for newer strategies to combat the disease is a never-ending process. In view of the same the present study was designed to biosynthesize zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs) from the aqueous leaf extract (ALE) of medicinally important plant Sphagneticola trilobata L. for the first time and to evaluate its efficacy in inducing cancer against HT-29 cells apart from identifying their biocompatible potential. The as prepared StZnO-NPs were characterized by different techniques that signified the properties of the nanoparticles, which included an absorption peak at 298 nm, bandgap energy of 3.43 eV with a size of ti 29.83 nm. The scanning electron microscopic images confirmed the particles were agglomerated and the energy dispersive spectroscopic analysis confirmed the particles were of 98.23% purity. The Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy revealed that the metabolites of the ALE act as reducing/ stabilizing agents during the synthesis process which was confirmed by the presence of absorbance peak between 400 cm(-1) to 600 cm(-1). The StZnO-NPs also offered potential antioxidant and genotoxic potential with an IC50 value of 0.7 mg mL(-1). In addition, the cytotoxic ability of the StZnO-NPs against the HT-29 colon cancer cells and human erythrocytes revealed that the particles were cytotoxic towards HT-29 cells, while insignificant effect against the human erythrocytes. Further, a detailed investigation on the interaction with cells and their inherent toxicity may be enhanced through in vivo methods before their therapeutic usage as the StZnO-NPs evaluated during the study offered antioxidant, genotoxic and cytotoxic properties is biocompatible. (C) 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.