Sustainable green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Sambucus ebulus phenolic extract (AgNPs@SEE): Optimization and assessment of photocatalytic degradation of methyl orange and their in vitro antibacterial and anticancer activity

The biogenic approach in the synthesis of nanoparticles provides an efficient alternative to the chemical synthesis system. Furthermore, the ecofriendly synthesis of metallic nanoparticles is developing rapidly due to its wide applications in sciences. In this research, metallic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were biosynthesized using Sambucus ebulus (S. ebulus; AgNPs@SEE) extract for the evaluation of efficient antibacterial, anticancer, and photocatalyst activities. The reaction parameters including temperatures, contact time, and AgNO3 concentration were discussed and optimized. The optimized nanoparticles (AgNPs@SEE) showed cubic structure, spherical morphology with the average size of 35-50 nm. The photocatalytic performance of AgNPs was assessed by degradation of methyl orange at different concentrations of AgNPs@SEE (10 and 15 mu l) under sun-light irradiation. About 95.89% of the pollutant was degraded (after 11 min), when 10 mu l of nanocatalyst used. Also, the degradation of contaminant increased (about 95.47% after 7 min) by increasing the nanoparticle concentration to 20 mu l. All in all, the results showed that the percentage of pollutant degradation increased with increasing the concentration of nanocatalyst. Furthermore, anticancer activity of AgNPs@SEE on human cancer cell lines (AGS and MCF-7), and antibacterial activity on both Gram-positive and Gram-negative microorganisms were studied. The synthesized AgNPs@SEE exhibited superior performance on cancer cell lines and effective antibacterial properties against Gram-positive microorganisms (like MIC value of 1.5 mu g/ml for S. aureus) than Gram-negative microorganisms. All these investigations revealed that silver nanoparticles synthesized by natural extract have the potential to use as low-cost and efficient nanoparticles for environmental and biomedical applications. (C) 2021 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.

Automated summary

The biogenic synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Sambucus ebulus extract showed efficient antibacterial, anticancer, and photocatalytic activities. By optimizing reaction parameters, cubic structure and spherical morphology of nanoparticles were achieved. The study demonstrated an increase in pollutant degradation efficiency with higher nanoparticle concentrations.