SYNTHESIS OF GOLD NANOPARTICLES USING LEAF AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF PHYLLANTHUS VIRGATUS (PHYLLANTHACEAE), ANTIMICROBIAL AND CYTOTOXIC ACTIVITY AGAINST A549 CELL LINE

The local tribes have used Phyllanthus virgatus for Malnutrition, Contagious infections, Inflammations (Gond Tribe), Hepatitis, Cold, Stomach-ache, Gonorrhoea, Fever, Headache, and septic ailments (Chenchus and Yanadis), etc. The gold nanoparticles have a highly specific surface area, and their unique physiochemical characteristics include catalytic activities, optimal properties, antimicrobial activity, etc. Aqueous leaf extract of Phyllanthus virgatus is used to synthesize gold Nanoparticles. The confirmation of biosynthesis of gold nanoparticles was characterized using UV Spectrophotometer, with the maximum scale observed at 551nm. SEM and EDX characterized the morphology of Gold Nanoparticles used to detect the presence of the element gold. The synthesized Nanoparticles were observed to be roughly spherical with a range of 2-50 µm. The dynamic light technique measured the hydrodynamic diameter (28.7nm) and a Zeta potential (-18.6mV). The FTIR analogue shows that the functional group assigned as=C-H,   C-C, O-H, –C=C- and –C=O capping agents. The synthesized nanoparticles have shown strong inhibitory action against pathogenic microbial Strains using the Disc diffusion method. Bacillus cereus exhibited more significant results than other microorganisms. The cytotoxicity of gold nanoparticles was studied using an MTT assay against a human lung cancer cell line (A549) at different concentrations at 24 hrs. Anticancer activity of crude aqueous leaf extract and green synthesized nanoparticle extracts exhibited different responses against the A549 cell line. P. virgatus aqueous leaf extract and the green synthesized nanoparticles exhibited cytotoxic potential properties with the IC₅₀ concentrations at 497.55 (µG/mL) and 189.97(µG/mL), respectively. The results revealed that gold nanoparticles could be an efficient therapeutic agent for lung cancer treatment.