Antioxidant, cytotoxic and antibacterial potential of biosynthesized nanoparticles using bee honey from two different floral sources in Saudi Arabia

Nowadays, the innovative study of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) is excessive since they have incredible biomedical applications. The current study aimed to find out the potential of honey from two different floral sources (Ziziphus spina-christi and Acacia gerrardii) as biogenic mediators to synthesize AgNPs and to evaluate their antioxidant, cytotoxic and antimicrobial abilities. Biogenic AgNPs were studied for particle characterizations and the expected biomolecules helped in the reduction process of silver (Ag) ions to AgNPs. Results demonstrated different size (50–98 nm) and potential −42 and −30 for AgNPs prepared using different biological materials, therefore different 1,1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) scavenging free radicals were observed. Cytotoxic effect in a dose-dependent manner was detected against LoVo and HepG2 ca cells for biogenic AgNPs resulted from cell apoptosis that detected by caspase 3/7 activation in the treated cells compared to their corresponding controls. Furthermore, biogenic AgNPs suppressed the growth of Methicillin-resistant bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (Gram-positive) besides Escherichia coli and Peseudomonas aeruginosa (Gram-negative). The LC(50) of AgNPs was between 12.8 and 19 μg/mL and the antibacterial capability was between 20.8 ± 1.2 and 15.6 ± 0.8 mm. Bacterial membrane disturbance was evident in the current study when treated bacteria were studied by field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) in relation to untreated controls. Overall, the present findings indicated the possibility of simple green synthesis of AgNPs using honeybee, which are effective agents in some biomedical applications. Detailed future work is needed to further validate the results.