Green synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles derived from water and methanol extract of Centaurea solstitialis leaves and tested for antimicrobial activity and dye decolorization capability.

In this research, nanoparticles derived from water extract of Centaurea solstitialis leaves were used as green adsorbent in Fenton reaction for Reactive Red 180 (RR180) and Basic Red 18 (BR18) dyes removal. At optimum operating conditions, nanoparticles proved high performance in the tested dyes removal with more than 98% of removal elimination. The free-radical scavenging, DNA nuclease, biofilm inhibition capability, antimicrobial activity, microbial cell viability, and antimicrobial photodynamic therapy activities of the iron oxide nanoparticles (FeO-NPs) derived from water and methanol extract of plant were investigated. Each of the following analysis: SEM-EDX, XRD, and Zeta potential was implemented for the prepared NPs characterization and to describe their morphology, composition and its behavior in an aqueous solution, respectively. It was found that, the DPPH scavenging activities increased when the amount of nanoparticles increased. The highest radical scavenging activity achieved with FeO-NPs derived from water extract of plant as 97.41% at 200 mg/L. The new green synthesized FeO-NPs demonstrated good DNA cleavage activity. FeO-NPs showed good in vitro antimicrobial activities against human pathogens. The results showed that both synthesized FeO-NPs displayed 100% antimicrobial photodynamic therapy activity after LED irradiation. The water extract of FeO-NPs and methanol extract of FeO-NPs also showed a significant biofilm inhibition.