Biosynthesis of metal/metal oxide nanoparticles via Deverra tortuosa: characterization, GC/MS profiles, and biological potential

Since the beginning of humanity, people have used wild medicinal plants for the treatment of various diseases. Nowadays, researchers and scientists pay attention to exploring new tools to maximize the efficacy of natural products from natural resources, and among these tools formulation of nanoparticles is very promising. The green synthesis of metal/metal oxide nano-solutions using the Deverra tortuosa extract has still not been explored well. This study aims to prepare many metal/metal oxide nanoparticle solutions such as ZnO-NPs, SeO₂-MNPs, and Ag-NPs via the methanol extract of D. tortuosa as safe, easy, green, and economic approach as well as characterize the chemical components of D. tortuosa plant by GC-MS spectroscopy analysis. The synthesized M-NPs solutions were characterized by UV-visible (UV-Vis) spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), zeta potential, Fourier Transform Infrared (FT-IR) spectroscopy, and phytochemical analyses. The potential antioxidant capacity was estimated for the methanol extract of this plant along with the metal/metal oxide nanoparticles solutions by DPPH assay. In addition, the cytotoxic activity was in vitro assessed for the inspected samples against various tumor and normal cell lines applying MTT assay. The application of the D. tortuosa methanolic extract resulted in NPs with a range of 11.79-85.9 nm which was characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, TEM, zeta potential, and FT-IR spectroscopy that revealed various functional groups of the tested samples. The GC-MS analysis of the D. tortuosa methanolic extract showed the presence of 31 chemical compounds with 2-methyl-3-oxocyclopent-1-ene-1-carboxylic acid, methyl oleate, and 6-allyl-4,5-dimethoxybenzo[d][1,3]-dioxole as major constituents. The extract showed considerable antioxidant activity as well as antimicrobial activity that was assessed also against varied bacterial and fungal species. Remarkable potencies for the investigated metal/metal oxide nanoparticle solutions hinder the growth of the tumor cell lines, in addition to the growth of the microbial species. Based on the determined biological activities of the produced NPs, future study is recommended to characterize the pure authentic compounds that are identified within the D. tortuosa as major compounds as well as evaluate their modes of action.