Inhibition of bacteria associated with wound infection by biocompatible green synthesized gold nanoparticles from South African plant extracts

摘要

Unlike conventional physical and chemical methods, the biogenic synthesis of goldnanoparticles (GNPs) is considered a green and non-toxic approach to produce biocompatibleGNPs that can be utilized in various biomedical applications. This can be achieved by usingplant-derived phytochemicals to reduce gold salt into GNPs. Several green synthesized GNPshave been shown to have antibacterial effects, which can be applied in wound dressings to preventwound infections. Therefore, the aim of this study is to synthesize biogenic GNPs from the SouthAfrican Galenia africana and Hypoxis hemerocallidea plants extracts and evaluate their antibacterialactivity, using the Alamar blue assay, against bacterial strains that are known to cause woundinfections. Additionally, we investigated the toxicity of the biogenic GNPs to non-cancerous humanfibroblast cells (KMST-6) using 3-[4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl]-2,5-diphenyl tetrazolium bromide (MTT)assay. In this paper, spherical GNPs, with particle sizes ranging from 9 to 27 nm, were synthesizedand fully characterized. The GNPs from H. hemerocallidea exhibited antibacterial activity against allthe tested bacterial strains, whereas GNPs produced from G. africana only exhibited antibacterialactivity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The GNPs did not show any significant toxicity towardsKMST-6 cells, which may suggest that these nanoparticles can be safely applied in wound dressings.