Production of Plant-Based Zno Nps by Green Synthesis; Anticancer Activities and Photodegradation of Methylene Red Dye Under Sunlight

Abstract

Discharging wastewater from factories into streams without cleaning them causes environmental pollution and threatens the health of living beings. The photocatalysis method developed for easy, fast, and low-cost wastewater cleaning attracts considerable attention and therefore needs to synthesize efficient photocatalysts. In addition, the synthesized non-toxic catalysts can be tested as anticancer agents and may be suitable candidates to solve the issues facing cancer therapy today. Therefore, the synthesis of biogenic nanomaterials has gained importance. Plant-mediated green synthesis stands out in the simple, fast, cheap, and non-toxic production of nanoparticles (NPs). NPs produced by green synthesis are frequently used in biological applications such as anticancer and photocatalyst applications for cleaning wastewater. In this article, zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) were obtained using Zingiber officinale extract. The plant extract functions as a reducing, capping, and stabilizing agent in the green production of ZnO NPs. The synthesis of ZnO NPs was characterized using UV-Vis spectroscopy, FTIR, XRD, and TEM. TEM results show that ZnO NPs have sizes in the range of 10-45 nm. The anticancer activity of ZnO NPs was examined against HT29 (ATCC (R) HTB-38 (TM)) colorectal cancer cell line and HepG2 (ATCC (R) HB-8065 (TM)) hepatocellular cancer cell line by MTT assay. The IC50 values of ZnO NPs against HT29 and HepG2 cancer cell lines after 48 h were calculated as 20 mu g/mL and 45 mu g/mL, respectively. Additionally, the photocatalytic activity of ZnO NPs was tested against methylene red azo dye under sunlight and 87.96% (pH 7) photodegradation was obtained at the end of the 120th minute. It is predicted that ZnO NPs can be used effectively in both anticancer studies and environmental improvement.