Optimization and evaluation of anticancer, antifungal, catalytic, and antibacterial activities: Biosynthesis of spherical-shaped gold nanoparticles using Pistacia vera hull extract (AuNPs@PV)

In the past years, use of plant sources for the biosynthesis of nanoparticles has become very important. Gold nanoparticles with unique biological properties are one of these materials which are being investigated extensively. In the present study, the aqueous extract of Pistacia vera hull was utilized to fabrication of gold nanoparticles (AuNPs@PV) in a facile, environmentally friendly, and affordable way. Then the anticancer, antifungal, antibacterial, and photocatalytic potentials of AuNPs@PV were also investigated. The results of various techniques applied, including XRD, UV–vis, TEM, FT-IR, EDS, and FESEM showed the biological reduction of Au³⁺ ions to Au⁰. Antibacterial studies were performed on a wide range of bacteria including seven strains of ATCC and seven strains of drug-resistant pathogens. According to the findings of this research, it seems that biosynthesized gold nanoparticles had good antibacterial activity against ATCC and drug-resistant strains of bacteria. The MIC values of E. coli, S. aureus, P. mirabilis, P. aeruginosa, E. faecalis, K. pneumonia, A. baumannii were 34.37, 4.2, 8.59, 4.29, 0.5, 34.37, and 8.59 μg/mL, respectively. The result of the antifungal investigation showed that two pathogenic fungi, Candida albicans (IFRC1873) and Candida albicans (IFRC1874) were susceptible to AuNPs@PV with MIC values of 550 and 137 μg/mL, respectively. Furthermore, AuNPs@PV revealed noteworthy anticancer efficacy against AGS-3 and MCF-7 cell lines with IC50 values of 58.31 and 148.1 μg/mL, respectively. The results of the cytotoxicity effect of AuNPs@PV on BEAS-2B as a normal cell line indicated the selectivity of AuNPs@PV on cancerous cells. Furthermore, the fabricated AuNPs@PV under UV irradiation exhibited significant potential in the decolorization of methylene orange (MO) with a percent decolorization of 91.5 % after 20 min. Therefore, it can be concluded that biosynthesized gold nanoparticles as a photocatalyst, anti-bacterial, antifungal, and anti-cancer agents have potential applications in the fields of environment and biology.