antioxidant, cytotoxic, and antihemolytic activity of greenly synthesized selenium nanoparticles using elettaria cardamomum extract

Elettaria cardamomum is a spice that used in treatment of several diseases in traditional medicine. selenium nanoparticles were synthesized using the aqueous extract of e. cardamomum dried plant to evaluate their phytochemical constituents, antioxidant, anticancer and hemolytic activity. this research provided biologically active and cost-effective selenium nanoparticles. the synthesized nanoparticle solutions were characterized using uv-visible spectrophotometer, zeta potential analysis, and transmission electron microscope. phenolics, flavonoids, and tannins content decreased in the prepared nanoparticles than the main extract that prove the utilization of these groups in the synthesis of nanoparticles and the decrease in antioxidant activity in the prepared nanosolution than the main extract using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl assay. the synthesized nanomaterial and e. cardamomum extract were tested for their anticancer activity using 6 tumor and one normal cell lines. the synthesized nano-selenium using e. cardamomum expressed good cytotoxic potency against tumor cell lines of hepg-2 with an ic50 of 23.33 µg/ml followed by hela (ic50 = 27.59 µg/ml), hep2 ( ic50 = 31.04 µg/ml), hct-116 of moderate or less potency ( ic50 = 37.36 µg/ml), pc3 of moderate or less potency (ic50 = 38.68 µg/ml) and wi-38 that expressed the lowest activity (ic50 = 52.91 µg/ml), respectively.   in addition, all the samples showed weak cytotoxic activities against the normal lung fibroblast cell line. e. cardamomum extracts and its synthesized selenium nano-solution were non/less toxic to human erythrocytes. the results confirmed the improved biological characteristics of selenium nanoparticles formulated with e. cardamomum.