Antioxidant Properties of Biohybrids Based on Liposomes and Sage Silver Nanoparticles

This paper is aimed to describe a simple and rapid eco-friendly bottom-up approach for the preparation of antioxidant silver bionanostructures using a leaf extract from sage (Salvia officinalis L.). The bioreduction property of sage in the synthesis of silver nanoparticles was investigated by UV-VIS and Attenuated Total Reflectance Fourier Transform Infrared spectroscopy. During their preparation, the particle size analysis was performed by using Dynamic Light Scattering technique. Ultrasonic irradiation was used to obtain sage silver nanoparticles. The morphology (size and shape) of the herbal silver nanoparticles was evaluated by Scanning Electron Microscopy that revealed the formation of spherical phytonanoparticles with size less than 80 nm. In order to increase their stability and their biocompatibility, the sage silver nanoparticles were introduced in two types of liposomes: soybean lecithin- and Chla-DPPC-lipid vesicles which were prepared by thin film hydration method. X-Ray Fluorescence analysis confirmed the silver presence in liposomes/sage-AgNPs biohybrids. The stability of liposomes/herbal AgNPs bioconstructs was checked by zeta potential measurements. The most stable biohybrids: Chla-DPPC/sage-AgNPs with zeta potential value of -34.2 mV, were characterized by Atomic Force Microscopy revealing the spherical and quasi-spherical shaped profiles of these nanobiohybrids with size less than 96 nm. The antioxidant activity of the silver bionanostructures was evaluated using chemiluminescence assay. The developed eco-friendly silver phytonanostructures based on lipid membranes, nanosilver and sage extract, manifest strong antioxidant properties (between 86.5% and 98.6%).