Sunlight Mediated Biosynthesis and Characterisation of Gold Nanoparticles Using Pisonia grandis Leaf Extract for Biomedical Applications

In the present study, sunlight mediated an eco-friendly method of synthesising gold nanoparticles using the aqueous leaf extract of Pisonia grandis has been demonstrated. The leaf extract acted as both reducing and stabilising agent. Formation of gold nanoparticles was confirmed using Ultra Violet-Visible spectroscopy as it exhibited surface plasma resonance band at 530 nm. Morphological studies through field emission scanning electron microscopy and transmission electron microscopy showed that synthesised gold nanoparticles were spherical in shape and selected area energy dispersion analysis showed that the particles were crystalline in nature. Energy Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy evaluation confirmed the presence of elemental gold in the sample. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy confirmed the presence of biomolecules on the surface of particles which are responsible for reduction process. Particle size analysis revealed that the average size of synthesised gold nanoparticles was about 60.08 nm. The synthesised gold nanoparticles exhibited a profound stability in physiological buffer solutions. Moreover biocompatibility and hemocompatibility of gold nanoparticles was evaluated using biological matrices such as fibroblast cell line and red blood cells respectively. These studies proved that synthesised nanoparticles possess high level of biocompatibility. In-vivo toxicity studies using zebra fish embryo model imply that the synthesised gold nanoparticles were safe in in-vivo. With this preliminary investigation it is obvious that synthesised gold nanoparticles have all the merits to perform as drug carrier or imaging agent in biomedical field.