The field of nanotechnology mainly encompasses with biology, physics, chemistry and material sciences and it develops novel therapeutic nanosized materials for biomedical and pharmaceutical applications. The biological syntheses of nanoparticles are being carried out by different macro-microscopic organisms such as plant, bacteria, fungi, seaweeds and microalgae. The biosynthesized nanomaterials have been effectively controlling the various endemic diseases with less adverse effect. Plant contains abundant natural compounds such as alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, tannins and other nutritional compounds. These natural products are derived from various parts of plant such as leaves, stems, roots shoots, flowers, barks, and seeds. Recently, many studies have proved that the plant extracts act as a potential precursor for the synthesis of nanomaterial in non-hazardous ways. Since the plant extract contains various secondary metabolites, it acts as reducing and stabilizing agents for the bioreduction reaction to synthesized novel metallic nanoparticles. The non-biological methods (chemical and physical) are used in the synthesis of nanoparticles, which has a serious hazardous and high toxicity for living organisms. In addition, the biological synthesis of metallic nanoparticles is inexpensive, single step and eco-friendly methods. The plants are used successfully in the synthesis of various greener nanoparticles such as cobalt, copper, silver, gold, palladium, platinum, zinc oxide and magnetite. Also, the plant mediated nanoparticles are potential remedy for various diseases such as malaria, cancer, HIV, hepatitis and other acute diseases.

Recently, metal nanoparticles have been getting great medical and social interests due to their potential physico-chemical properties such as higher affinity, low molecular weight, and larger surface area. The biosynthesized gold and silver nanoparticles are spherical, triangular in shape with an average size of 24-150 nm as reported in our earlier studies. The biological properties of synthesized gold and silver nanoparticles are demonstrated in this paper. The different in vitro assays such as MTT, flow cytometry, and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR) techniques were used to evaluate the in vitro anticancer properties of synthesized metal nanoparticles. The biosynthesized gold and silver nanoparticles have shown reduced cell viability and increased cytotoxicity in HCT-116 colon cancer cells with IC50 concentration of 200 and 100 μg/ml, respectively. The flow cytometry experiments revealed that the IC50 concentrations of gold and silver nanoparticle-treated cells that have significant changes were observed in the sub-G1 cell cycle phase compared with the positive control. Additionally, the relative messenger RNA (mRNA) gene expressions of HCT-116 cells were studied by RT-qPCR techniques. The pro-apoptotic genes such as PUMA (++), Caspase-3 (+), Caspase-8 (++), and Caspase-9 (++) were upregulated in the treated HCT-116 cells compared with cisplatin. Overall, these findings have proved that the synthesized gold and silver nanoparticles could be potent anti-colon cancer drugs.

Colon cancer is a world-wide health problem and the second-most dangerous type of cancer, affecting both men and women. The modern diet and lifestyles, with high meat consumption and excessive alcohol use, along with limited physical activity has led to an increasing mortality rate for colon cancer worldwide. As a result, there is a need to develop novel and environmentally benign drug therapies for colon cancer. Currently, nutraceuticals play an increasingly important role in the treatment of various chronic diseases such as colon cancer, diabetes and Alzheimer׳s disease. Nutraceuticals are derived from various natural sources such as medicinal plants, marine organisms, vegetables and fruits. Nutraceuticals have shown the potential to reduce the risk of colon cancer and slow its progression. These dietary substances target different molecular aspects of colon cancer development. Accordingly, this review briefly discusses the medicinal importance of nutraceuticals and their ability to reduce the risk of colorectal carcinogenesis.

The study explored on the commonly available weed plant Commelina nudiflora which has potential in-vitro antioxidant and antimicrobial activity. The different polar solvents such as ethanol, chloroform, dichloromethane, hexane and aqueous were used for the soxhlet extraction. The extracts were identified pharmacologically as important bioactive compounds and their potential free radical scavenging activities, and antimicrobial properties were studied. C. nudiflora extracts were monitored on their in-vitro antioxidant ability by DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assay. Aqueous extract shows significant free radical scavenging activity of 63.4 mg/GAE and 49.10 mg/g in DPPH and ABTS respectively. Furthermore, the aqueous crude extract was used in antibacterial studies, which shows the highest inhibitory activity against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi. Among all the extracts, aqueous extract of C. nudiflora has significant control over free radical scavenging activity and inhibition of the growth of food pathogenic bacteria. Also, the aqueous extract contains abundance of phenolics and flavonoids higher than other extracts. This study explored weed plant C. nudiflora as a potential source of antioxidant and antibacterial efficacy and identified various therapeutic value bioactive compounds from GC-MS analysis.

The purpose of this study was to identify potent lactic acid bacteria that could have a great impact on triticale silage fermentation at different moisture levels and determine their anti-bacterial activity and high probiotic potential. For this purpose, Pediococcus pentosaceus (TC48) and Lactobacillus brevis (TC50) were isolated from fermented triticale silage. The fermentation ability of these isolates in triticale powder was studied by an ensiling method. TC48 had higher ability to ferment silage powder by increasing the lactic acid content of silage than TC50. Extracellular supernatant (ECS) of TC48 and TC50 exhibited strong antibacterial effects (inhibition zone diameters: 18–28 mm) against tested cattle pathogenic bacteria with minimum inhibitory/ minimum bactericidal concentrations (MIC/MBC) values of 5.0–10 mg/mL and 10–20 mg/mL, respectively. Extracellular supernatant (ECS) of TC48 and TC50 showed antibacterial activities on E. coli, P. aeruoginosa, S. aureus and E. faecalis through destruction of membrane integrity as confirmed by decreased viability, and increased 260 nm absorbing material in culture filtrate of pathogenic bacteria exposed to ECS of both strains. TC48 and TC50 strains exhibited high tolerance to artificial gastric, duodenal and intestinal fluids. TC48 showed good hydrophobicity and auto-aggregations properties. TC48 and TC50 significantly co-aggregated with E. coli, P. aeruoginosa, S. aureus and E. faecalis in a time-dependent manner. In summary, all of the bacteria had a positive impact on at least one functional property of the silage during the fermentation process. However, the addition of P. pentosaceus (TC48) and L. brevis (TC50) yielded the greatest silage quality improvement, having high antibacterial and probiotic properties.