Fabrication of silver
nanoparticles (AgNPs) using Chinese herbal
medicine is popular as the bioactive components included in them would
generate potential synergistic effect with the metal nanoparticles.
The leaf of
Mentha pulegium
, whose extract contains
a range of phytochemicals and exhibits a wide spectrum of bioactivities,
is used as Chinese herbal medicine after drying naturally. Thus, the
green synthesis of AgNPs using
Mentha pulegium
has
aroused interests from analysts. However, the biosynthesis of AgNPs
under alkaline conditions and the biological activities remain elusive,
where alkaline conditions may influence the physicochemical properties
and the biological activities of biosynthesized AgNPs. In this study,
we were stimulated to fabricate bioactive AgNPs using
Mentha
pulegium
extract under alkaline conditions, accompanied by
a systematic evaluation on the effect of biosynthesis parameters on
the formation, average size, and polydispersity of AgNPs. Our results
showed that alkaline conditions could accelerate the formation of
AgNPs with a small average size but at a disadvantage to the polydispersity.
Additionally, the as-prepared AgNPs had a hexagonal structure and
spherical shape with an average size of 15.7 ± 0.1 nm, existing
in the monodispersed form and revealing a high degree of stability.
The AgNPs exhibited potent antioxidant and significant inhibitory
activity for both bacterial and cancer cell lines. The MIC values
of AgNPs for
Staphylococcus aureus
and
Escherichia
coli
were both 50.0 μg·mL
–1
,
and the IC
50
values for HCT116, HepG2, and HeLa cells were
9.0, 14.5, and 31.5 μg·mL
–1
, respectively.
The AgNPs biosynthesized using
M. pulegium
under
alkaline conditions, which had a smaller size and more surface loads,
are entirely different with those synthesized under acidic conditions,
and the anticancer activity increased significantly. The internalization
of AgNPs inside these five cells displayed a variant trend with variable
AgNPs concentrations, suggesting the different mechanism of cell death.
For two pathogens, HCT116 and HepG2 cancer cell lines, both cell wall
and intracellular damage may be responsible for the cell death. However,
for Hela cell line the cell death may be rooted in oxidative stress
or intracellular penetration. These results confirmed that the AgNPs
biosynthesized from
M. pulegium
extract under alkaline
conditions would act as better anticancer agents in biomedicine.