Effect of Green Synthesized Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles Using Crataegus aronia L. on Human Colon Cancer – CaCo-2 Cell Line

Crataegus aronia L. is commonly known as Hawthorn and used in traditional Jordan medicine. In this research, the phytochemical compounds were studied qualitatively and quantitatively using fruit extract of the wild C. aronia collected from Jordan. The total phenolic, total tannin, total alkaloid, and total flavonoid contents of the fruit extract of C. aronia was determined using standard methods. The antioxidant activity was evaluated using the DPPH (2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging assay. Biogenic synthesis of magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgONPs) using the plant extract was carried out. The purified nanoparticles were characterized by UV-visible spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), X-ray diffraction (XRD), Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), and Transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The cytotoxic effect of the MgONPs against colon cancer (CaCo2) cell line was evaluated using the MTT (3-(4,5-dimethyl-thiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) colorimetric assay. The MgO nanoparticles had smooth surface and randomly arranged with an average particle size of 20–40 nm. The nanoparticles exhibited cytotoxic activity against colon cancer cell lines with an IC50 value of 98 µg/mL. The study concluded that MgONPs synthesized using fruits of Crataegus aronia have potential anticancer activity against CaCo2 cell lines.