Fluorescent carbon dots driven from ayurvedic medicinal plants for cancer cell imaging and phototherapy

• Published in: Heliyon Vol. 5; no. 9; p. e02483
• Main Authors: Meena, Ramhari, Singh, Ranvir, Marappan, Gobinath, Kushwaha, Garima, Gupta, Narendra, Meena, Rekhraj, Gupta, Jay Prakash, Agarwal, Raja Ram, Fahmi, Nighat, Kushwaha, Omkar Singh
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier Ltd 01.09.2019; Elsevier
• Subjects: Ayurveda; Biomedical engineering; Cancer; Cancer research; Chemical engineering; Imaging; Materials application; Materials characterization; Materials chemistry; Materials processing; Materials science; Materials synthesis; Medical imaging; Medicinal plants; Nano-dots; Nanomaterials; Nanotechnology; Plant biology; Surface chemistry; Therapy; Medicinal plants; Therapy; Ayurveda; Medical imaging; Materials application; Chemical engineering; Surface chemistry; Plant biology; Materials science; Nanomaterials; Materials processing; Materials chemistry; Materials synthesis; Nano-dots; Cancer research; Materials characterization; Imaging; Nanotechnology; Biomedical engineering; Cancer
• ISSN: 2405-8440; 2405-8440
• DOI: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2019.e02483

Ayurveda based nanomaterials are recently conceptualized phenomena for biomedical applications especially for imaging and treatment of in vitro cancer cell. Wide range florescent (blue to red emission) quantum dots are versatile materials for imaging and sensing applications. Various procedures and precursors of fluorescent carbon quantum dots (CQDs) are well established and documented in the literature. However, expensive precursors and production, and time consuming process limit their economical design that need to be addressed. Herein, we report a cost effective simple route for fluorescent CQDs by using affordable ayurvedic plant's precursors such as Azadirachta Indica, OcimumTenuiflorum and Tridax Procumbens. Obtained quantum dots from ayurvedic plant leaves namely CQDs-1 (AzadirachtaIndica), CQDs-2 (OcimumTenuiflorum) and CQDs-3 (TridaxProcumbens) showed homogeneous size distribution (∼6–12 nm) and green fluorescent nature, average photo-stability, biocompatibility (more than 85 %), cancer cell imaging and promising phototherapy for cancer and bacterial cell lines.