Green Synthesis of Gold Nanoparticles by Aqueous Extract of Zingiber officinale: Characterization and Insight into Antimicrobial, Antioxidant, and In Vitro Cytotoxic Activities

• Published in: Applied sciences Vol. 12; no. 24; p. 12879
• Main Authors: Fouda, Amr, Eid, Ahmed M., Guibal, Eric, Hamza, Mohammed F., Hassan, Saad El-Din, Alkhalifah, Dalal Hussien M., El-Hossary, Dalia
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basel MDPI AG 01.12.2022; Multidisciplinary digital publishing institute (MDPI)
• Subjects: Antibiotic resistance; Antibiotics; Antiinfectives and antibacterials; Antimicrobial activity; Antimicrobial agents; Antioxidants; Aquatic plants; Ascorbic acid; Bacteria; Biological products; Biotechnology; Cancer therapies; Cell division; Chemotherapy; Chloroauric acid; Coliforms; Cosmetics; Cytotoxicity; DPPH; Engineering Sciences; Fourier transforms; Fungi; Ginger; ginger rhizome extract; Gold; gold nanoparticles; Gram-negative bacteria; Gram-positive bacteria; green synthesis; Infrared spectroscopy; Materials; Metabolites; Microorganisms; Morphology; Multidrug resistant organisms; Nanomaterials; Nanoparticles; normal and cancerous cell lines; pathogenic microbes; Pseudomonas aeruginosa; Rhizomes; Scavenging; Spectrum analysis; Tumor cell lines; Ultraviolet spectroscopy; Zeta potential; Zingiber officinale; Cairo Egypt; United Kingdom > UK; Japan; Germany; Egypt; pathogenic microbes; normal and cancerous cell lines; ginger rhizome extract; DPPH; green synthesis; gold nanoparticles
• ISSN: 2076-3417; 2076-3417
• DOI: 10.3390/app122412879

The main challenge for researchers in the biomedical sectors concerns the development of new active compounds through cost-effectiveness, rapid, simple, and ecofriendly methods to overcome antibiotic resistance to pathogenic microbes. Herein, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) were fabricated by a green approach through the reduction of chloroauric acid (HAuCl4) by harnessing the metabolites present in the aqueous extract of Zingiber officinale rhizome. UV-Vis spectroscopy, FT-IR, XRD, TEM, DLS, and zeta potential were used to characterize phytosynthesized AuNPs. In addition, the antimicrobial effect was investigated against Gram-positive bacteria (Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus), Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli), unicellular fungi (Candida albicans), and multicellular fungi (Aspergillus brasiliensis). Antioxidant and in vitro cytotoxic activities were assessed. TEM and XRD showed the successful formation of spherical and crystalline structures, with sizes in the range of 5–53 nm (average size: 15.11 ± 8.5 nm). The zeta potential value (i.e., –28.8 mV) explains the high stability of synthesized AuNPs. AuNPs exhibit promising activity against prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms with variable inhibition zones and low MIC values in the range of 25–6.25 µg mL−1. Phytosynthesized AuNPs exhibit DPPH scavenging activity with percentages of 87.6 ± 0.5% at a maximum concentration (1000 µg mL−1), which can be compared with ascorbic acid (97.3 ± 0.2%). Moreover, the AuNPs displayed a target-oriented effect for cancer cell lines HepG2 and MCF7 at low IC50 concentrations of 131.9 ± 9.34 and 288.23 ± 31.39 µg mL−1 compared to the normal oral epithelial OEC cell line (487.612 ± 3.53 µg mL−1). Overall, the phytosynthesized AuNPs show wide activities that enable their use in various biomedical and biotechnological applications.