synthesis of stable and biocompatible metal nanoparticles through natural phenolic compounds

Aim and background: in general nanoparticle cytotoxicity is depended on many factors such as size, shape, surface charge, size distribution, and surface chemistry. some of chemicals that have been used for nanoparticles synthesis are toxic (such as borohydride or ctab). the toxicity of other chemicals such as citrate is under debate. we believed that the surface chemistry of metallic nanoparticles that have been synthetized by natural phenolic compounds is more biocompatible than citrate coated metal nanoparticles. methods: citrate coated metal nanoparticles was synthetized based on well-known turkevich. natural phenolic compounds such as apigin, curcumin and gallic acid has been applied for synthesis of gold and silver nanoparticles. the stability of the synthetized nanoparticles was investigated by uv-vis spectroscopy. the phenolic compound stabilization was studied based on ftir, raman spectroscopy and tem microscopy. the cytotoxicity of the synthesized particles was analyzed through mtt assay. results and discussion: synthesis of metal nanoparticles by apigenin, gallic acid and curcumin has been performed. the presence of phenolic compounds was verified by ftir, raman and electron microscopy. phenolic acid coated particles are more stable than citrate coated particles in the different physiological solutions. the synthesized biogenic nanoparticles are more biocompatible than citrate mediated synthesized nanoparticles. conclusion: various phenolic compound could be applied for synthesis of biocompatible metallic nanoparticles instead of common chemicals.