Unveiling the Antioxidant Profiling, Cytotoxicity and Wound Healing Potential of Biocompatible Silver Nanoparticles...

Medicinal plants play a vital role in wound healing and offer a viable solution to pathogen resistance to pharmaceuticals. Current study aimed to unveil the nutritional profile, antioxidant, cytotoxicity and wound healing potential of aqueous extract and synthesized silver nanoparticles of Solanum melongena. The crude extract was evaluated for nutritional profile via proximate analysis and determined the total flavonoids content (TFC) and total phenolic contents (TPC). The results showed higher nutritional value with 23.70 and 13.35 g/100 g DW of total fiber and crude protein content, respectively. The TPC and TFC analyses revealed the presence of significant phenolic and flavonoid content with 78.26 mg GAE/g DW & 89.93 mg CE/g DW at 90 mg/mL. Antioxidant potential was evaluated through DPPH assay, resulting in 68.67% (aqueous) and 81.87% (AgNPs) inhibition of free radicals. The promising antibacterial activity was shown by AgNPs against both Gram-positive (B. subtilis) and Gram-negative (E. coli, P. vulgaris, S. typhimurium, and P. multocida) bacterial strains, with a 19.5 mm ZOI recorded against B. subtilis. The biocompatibility was established through hemolytic assay exhibiting less than 5% hemolysis. The synthesized AgNPs of S. melongena were characterized, and SEM revealed a diameter of AgNPs as 30-52 nm. Through XRD analysis, average crystalline size was recorded as 15.37 nm and FTIR identified the key functional groups. LCMS analysis revealed the presence of key phytochemicals: campestral, cycloeucalenone, and neochlorogenic acid. The wound healing potential using crude and AgNPs was evaluated using eight groups of rabbits. Both extracts significantly reduced the wound size in rabbits, with nanoparticles showing higher efficacy. Histopathological studies revealed the reduced inflammation and markedly increased angiogenesis, fibroblast proliferation, re-epithelialization and collagen deposition, confirming their potent wound-healing activity. This study concludes that silver nanoparticles act as a potential carrier for drug delivery in targeted wounds, resulting in a significant reduction in wound size.