Evaluation of Antioxidant, Anticancer and DNA Binding Potentials of Noble Metal Nanoparticles Synthesized Using Aristolochia indica and Indigofera tinctoria.

The deployment of biological resources for the synthesis of nanoparticles of metals and metal oxides is the latest addition to green chemistry. The present work describes the use of aqueous stem extracts of Aristolochia indica and Indigofera tinctoria for the synthesis of silver and gold nanoparticles (Ag and Au NPs). The synthesized NPs were characterized by UV–Vis., FT-IR, TEM, XRD and EDAX analyzes. The antioxidant activities of functionalized Ag and Au NPs were studied by the DPPH method and the nanoparticles showed greater antioxidant activity than that of the extract; AgNPs synthesized by A. indica showed antioxidant activity of 84%. The in vitro cytotoxicity of the Ag and Au NPs was assessed by the MTT assay method using the HeLa cell line and the NPs synthesized by A. indica showed nearly 100% toxicity. DNA binding capacity was investigated using calf thymus-DNA by UV–Vis spectra, the hyperchromism shift inferred the groove binding of nanoparticles and the binding constants (1.66 × 107 and 1.06 × 107 and 0.77 × 107 and 1.59 × 107 M−1 for the NPs of Ag and Au synthesized by A. indica and I. tinctoria respectively) indicate a high potential of these nanoparticles for the administration of drugs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]