Investigation of the in vitro antibacterial, cytotoxic and in vivo analgesic effects of silver nanoparticles coated with Centella asiatica plant extract

Abstract

In the present study, functional silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized from silver ions using the therapeutic plant extracts of Centella asiatica (CA). CA functional groups coated AgNPs (CA-AgNPs) formation was proved by characteristic surface plasmon resonance (SPR) peaks at around 420 nm wavelength. The mean zeta size and zeta potential of CA-AgNPs were found to be 29.5 nm and -24.5 mV, respectively. It was determined that the obtained nanoparticles had a negative surface charge and the results showed that the CA-AgNPs were stable. The functional groups analysis of the CA-AgNPs was investigated by a fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). With antibacterial test, it was determined that the obtained nanoparticles have antibacterial activity on both gram-positive Staphylococcus aureus and gram-negative Escherichia coli. The cytotoxicity effects of CA and CA-AgNPs in different concentrations on L929 fibroblast were investigated with the MTT test, and it was determined that CA-AgNPs had a cytotoxic effect at concentrations above 1 mM. In addition, the analgesic effects of CA-AgNPs were investigated with tail flick and hot plate methods for the first time in the literature by tail flick and hot plate methods, and statistically significant results were obtained with both methods. These results showed that CA-AgNPs at certain concentrations are suitable nanoscale biomaterials for many biomedical applications.