Green synthesis of iron nanoparticles by Rosemary extract and cytotoxicity effect evaluation on cancer cell lines

Medicinal plants are of great importance in traditional medicine, in which in most part, the antioxidant activity of the plant-derived compounds is imagined responsible for treating various diseases. Rosmarinus officinalis L, contains several polyphenolic compounds with antioxidant activity; However, to elicit the anti-proliferative activity of R. officinalis, it is required to be improved via different strategies. Nowadays, green synthesis of metal nano- particles involving plant extract has attracted the attention of many researchers as this approach could help to derive the therapeutic benefits of the plant extracts. In this study, for the first time, the aqueous extract of rosemary was applied in green iron nanoparticle platform (Rosemary-FeNPs). Various methods, including dynamic light scattering(DLS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and Raman spectroscopy and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR) were employed to characterize Rosemary-FeNPs. The mean size of the Rosemary-FeNPs were at about 100 nm with PDI of less than 0.12, which indicates a homogeneous size distribution of the nanoparticles. The cytotoxicity of Rosemary-FeNPs and total extract of rosemary was determined using MTT cytotoxic test on 4T1 and C26 cancer cell lines. The results showed that Rosemary-FeNPs could exert more cytotoxic effect than total extract on both cancer cell lines.