Tragia involucrata Leaf-Mediated ZnO NPs: Biomedical Applications, Ointment Formulation and Electrochemical Studies

Abstract

Zinc oxide (ZnO) NPs, owing to their broad biomedical applications, have recently attracted the scientific community with incredible interest as therapeutic agents. So, the present study aims at preparation of ZnO NPs, using Tragia involucrata leaf extract and exploring their capability as antioxidant, anticancer and anti-inflammatory agents. Besides, the ointment formulation and electrochemical studies were also carried out in this work. The antioxidant activity of the synthesized ZnO NPs was evaluated using DPPH assay method and the results clearly showed higher inhibition of about 70% and lower inhibition of about 14% for 100 µg/ml and 25 µg/ml concentrations, respectively. The cytotoxic effects of ZnO NPs were evaluated against human cancer cell lines such as A549 (lungs), HeLa (cervical), HeP-2 (laryngeal) and MCF-7 (breast). The outcome of this investigation confirmed the effectiveness of the synthesized NPs against HeP-2 even at the lowest concentration. The anti-inflammatory activity was measured by the inhibition of protein denaturation assay. A higher inhibition of about 54% was noticed at the concentration of 100 µg/ml. In the case of the ointment formulation study, the pastes prepared using the biosynthesized ZnO NPs and commercially available ZnO powder were compared and evaluated using the parameters such as pH, spreadability, moisture content, extrudability, foamability and physical examinations. As it has been noticed that all the observed parameters were matching well with those of the commercially available ZnO powder, ZnO NPs, synthesized using Tragia involucrata, may be suggested for the clinical trials. Cyclic voltammetry was used to measure the specific capacitance of the synthesized ZnO NPs for different scan rates. The results of this study showed the gradual decrease in specific capacitance value for the corresponding increase in scan rates. Therefore, the results of present study indicated that ZnO NPs prepared using Tragia involucrata leaves were found to be effective for all the above chosen applications and hence, have multifunctional capacity.

Keywords: Anticancer activity; Electrochemical applications; Tragia involucrata; ZnO NPs.