Datura suaveolens and Verbena tenuisecta mediated silver nanoparticles, their photodynamic cytotoxic and antimicrobial evaluation.

Biogenic production of nanoparticles is eco-friendly, less expensive method with various medical and biological applications. Nanotechnology along with photodynamic therapy is gaining tremendous importance with enhanced efficacy. The present work was aimed to evaluate methanolic extracts and nanoparticles of two selected plants (Datura suavolens and Verbina tenuisecta) for cytotoxic photodynamic, antioxidant and antimicrobial study. Both extract and silver (5 mM) nanoparticles of Datura plant showed significant activities against bacterial strains. Maximum ZOI of 27.3 ± 1.6 mm was observed with nanoparticles of Datura branches with minimum inhibitory (MIC) value of 32 µg/ml. In case of antifungal and antioxidant assay samples were moderately active. Silver nanoparticles and extracts were effective against rhabdomyosarcoma cell line with lowest IC50 value of 42.5 ± 0.6 µg/ml and percent viability of 25.6 ± 1.3 of Verbena tenuisecta. However, nanoparticles of Datura leaves and branches were more potent with IC50 value of 2.4 ± 0.9 µg/ml and 7.8 ± 1.1 µg/ml respectively. The result of photodynamic study showed that efficacy of photosensitizer was enhanced and percent viability reduced when nanoparticles used as an adjunct. The color change and UV spectra (415‒425 nm) indicated the production of nanoparticles. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) spectra showed presence of different functional groups e.g., hydroxyl, carbonyl and amino. Nanoparticles are sphenoid in morphology and size ranges between 20-150 nm. Current study showed these silver nanoparticles can be used as cytotoxic agent in photodynamic therapy and can play a critical role to establish medicinal potential of selected plants.

Visible light assisted photooxidative facile degradation of azo dyes in water using a green method.

In this study, the methyl orange (MO) dye has been degraded after screening several azo dyes due to its effective results and being toxic and carcinogenic to aquatic life and humans. An environmentally friendly, economical, and green method for water purification was used in this study using the photooxidative method. Several organic acids were screened for oxidative applications against various azo dyes but due to better results, methyl orange was selected for the whole study. Ascorbic acid, also known as vitamin C, was found to be best for photodegradation due to its high oxidative activity among various organic acids utilized. A newly developed photoreactor box has been used to conduct the photooxidation process. To evaluate the degradation efficiency of AsA, photooxidative activity was monitored periodically. When the dose of AsA was used at a contact time of 180 minutes, degradation efficiency was 96%. The analysis of degraded products was performed using HPLC and GC-MS. The nucleophilicity of HOMO-LUMO and MEPs was confirmed using density functional theory. For the optimization of the process, central composite design (CCD) in Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was utilized.

Surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic analysis of centrifugally filtered HBV serum samples.

BACKGROUND: Raman spectroscopy is an effective tool for detecting and discriminating centrifugally filtered hepatitis B virus serum and centrifugally filtered control serum. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of current study is to separate high molecular weight fractions from low molecular weight fractions present hepatitis B serum to increase the disease diagnostic ability of surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS). METHODS: Clinically diagnosed centrifugally filtered serum samples of hepatitis B patients are subjected for surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) in comparison with centrifugally filtered serum samples of healthy individuals by using silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) as SERS substrates. Some SERS spectral features are solely observed in centrifugally filtered serum samples of hepatitis B and some SERS spectral are solely observed in centrifugally filtered serum samples of healthy individuals. The diagnostic ability of SERS is further enhanced with different statistical techniques like principal component analysis (PCA), partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) and partial least square regression analysis (PLSR) have applied. RESULTS: The disease biomarkers of hepatitis B are more pronounced after their centrifugation as compared with uncentrifuged form. Statistical tools like principal component analysis (PCA) and partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) clearly differentiated centrifugally filtered serum samples of hepatitis B from centrifugally filtered serum samples of healthy individuals. Furthermore, partial least square regression analysis (PLSR) has been applied for predicting unknown viral load of centrifugally filtered serum sample of hepatitis B. CONCLUSION: SERS technique along with chemometric tools have successfully differentiated centrifugally filtered serum samples of hepatitis B from centrifugally filtered serum samples of healthy individuals. The centrifugal filtration process has increased the differentiation accuracy of PLS-DA in terms of percentage 98% and regression accuracy of PLSR regression analysis in terms of RMSEP (0.30 IU/mL) of this diagnostic method as compared with that of uncentrifuged method.