Quercetin and gallic acid mediated synthesis of bimetallic (silver and selenium) nanoparticles and their antitumor and antimicrobial potential

• Synthesis of stable and environmental friendly Ag–Se NPs.
• Characterization on Ag–Se NPs by various techniques.
• Determination of total flavonoids and phenolics contents of NPs.
• Synthesized Ag–Se NPs act as antioxidant, anticancer and antimicrobial agents.

In this study a synthetic approach for the stable, mono-dispersed high yielding bimetallic (Ag–Se) nanoparticles by quercetin and gallic acid is described. The bimetallic nanoparticles were synthesized at room temperature. Different reaction parameters (concentration of quercetin, gallic acid and Ag/Se salt, pH, temperature and reaction time) were optimized to control the properties of nanoparticles. The nanoparticles were characterized by various analytical techniques and their size was determined to be 30–35 nm. Our findings suggest that both the reduction as well as stabilization of nanoparticles were achieved by the flavonoids and phenolics. This study describes the efficacy of quercetin and gallic acid mediated synthesis of bimetallic (Ag–Se) nanoparticles and their in vitro antioxidant, antimicrobial (Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria) and antitumor potentials. The synthesized Ag–Se nanoparticles were used as anticancer agents for Dalton lymphoma (DL) cells and in in vitro 80% of its viability was reduced at 50 μg/mL.

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