Bio-based fabrication of palladium nanoparticles by using Aegle marmelos leaf extract for biomedical applications: Cytotoxicity, cell imaging studies in HeLa cells and antioxidant activity

This paper presents the outcome of medicinal plant-derived synthesis of nanomaterial. The results in the present study provide a simple, novel, sustainable, and economically noble process for the synthesis of palladium nanoparticles using leaf extract Aegle marmelos (A. marmelos). Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) was used to verify the surface layer of synthesized palladium (ALE@Pd) nanoparticles (NPs) enriched with several kinds of phytochemicals. Transmission electron microscopy (TEM) revealed that the synthesized NPs possess a ball shape and the average diameter was 4.31 ± 1.89 nm. The synthesized NPs possess stability confirmed by UV–visible (UV–Vis) spectrophotometry. The face-centered cubic (FCC) crystal structure of the fabricated nanoparticles was confirmed by powder X-ray diffraction (PXRD). Fabricated ALE@Pd NPs are subjected to further testing for their cytotoxicity in HeLa cell lines, as well as for a comparative study of antioxidant activity between the A. marmelos leaves and prepared ALE@Pd NPs. The anti-carcinogenic activity and cell imaging in HeLa cells were tested, and the minimal inhibition concentration (MIC or IC₅₀) has been determined and found to be around 46 µg/mL for HeLa cell lines. Fabricated palladium nanoparticles derived from A. marmelos have the potential to be employed as an environmentally friendly and cost-effective anticancer agent. Furthermore, synthesized ALE@Pd NPs possess higher antioxidant activity than A. marmelos leaves extract (ALE) due to the increased phenolic content connected to the surface of produced palladium NPs as a capping agent. The minimal inhibition concentration of synthesized ALE@Pd NPs was found to be ∼5 µg/mL.