The present study aims at developing PGMD (poly-glycerol-malic acid-dodecanedioic acid)/curcumin nanoparticles based formulation for anticancer activity against breast cancer cells. The nanoparticles were prepared using both the variants of PGMD polymer (PGMD 7:3 and PGMD 6:4) with curcumin (i.e. CUR NP 7:3 and CUR NP 6:4). The size of CUR NP 7:3 and CUR NP 6:4 were found to be ~ 110 and 218 nm with a polydispersity index of 0.174 and 0.36, respectively. Further, the zeta potential of the particles was − 18.9 and − 17.5 mV for CUR NP 7:3 and CUR NP 6:4, respectively. The entrapment efficiency of both the nanoparticles was in the range of 75–81%. In vitro anticancer activity and the scratch assay were conducted on breast cancer cell lines, MCF-7 and MDA-MB-231. The IC50 of the nanoformulations was observed to be 40.2 and 33.6 μM at 48 h for CUR NP 7:3 and CUR NP 6:4, respectively, in MCF-7 cell line; for MDA-MB-231 it was 43.4 and 30.5 μM. Acridine orange/EtBr and DAPI staining assays showed apoptotic features and nuclear anomalies in the treated cells. This was further confirmed by western blot analysis that showed overexpression of caspase 9 indicating curcumin role in apoptosis.

The addition of polymer to injection fluid increases the crude oil recovery by improved sweep efficiency. Although it is the most widely used method for chemical enhanced oil recovery (CEOR), limitations such as lower stability of the polymer under reservoir conditions hinder the efficiency of the process. In the current study, a novel nanoparticle assisted polymer flooding approach was carried out to overcome these limitations. To determine whether nanoparticles influence the displacement efficiency of the injected fluid, we used a blend of xanthan gum and nickel nanoparticles. We have evaluated the changes in the dilute solution viscosity of xanthan when the nickel nanoparticles are added and have found out that a xanthan-nickel nanoparticles mixture has a higher intrinsic viscosity of 55.25 dL/g compared to 49.13 dL/g for the gum solution. Efficiency of nanoparticle assisted polymer flooding was evaluated in sand packed bioreactors with ∼0.6 PV of residual oil in place (ROIP). Flooding results demonstrated the highest recovery of 5.98% of additional ROIP with xanthan-nickel nanoparticle mixture compared to 4.48 and 4.58% of ROIP during the separate flooding of xanthan and nanoparticles, respectively. Results suggested the novel nanoparticle assisted polymer flooding approach is able to increase oil recovery beyond available methods.