Synthesis, Characterization, Antioxidant and Cytotoxic Studies of Embelin Loaded N,O-CMC Nanoparticles

Abstract

Embelin is a long alkyl chain substituted hydroxy benzoquinone and naturally isolated from Embelia ribes. Embelin was reported for a widespread range of pharmacological properties that including anticancer activity. However, the potency of embelin as an anticancer molecule is inadequate due to its high lipophilicity. N,O-Carboxymethyl Chitosan (N,O-CMC) are elegance biopolymers which are toxic-free, biodegradable and biocompatible. This is seemly appropriate for numerous biological utilization, such as gene therapy, drug administration and tissue engineering. Hence, in the present study, we aimed to synthesize and characterize embelin loaded N,O-CMC nanoparticles and study its antioxidant and cytotoxic properties. The embelin N,O-CMC nanoparticles were prepared by loading embelin into N,O-CMC nanoparticles and characterized by FT-IR, DLS, SEM, Zeta potential and XRD measurements. Antioxidant and cytotoxic studies were conducted for the synthesized embelin loaded N,O-CMC nanoparticles using DPPH and MTT assay methods, respectively. The synthesized embelin loaded N,O-CMC nanoparticles with particle size ranges from 650-850 nm. The charge of  embelin loaded N,O-CMC nanoparticles were confirmed by Zeta potential measurement and the value was found to be −47.8 mV. In the DPPH method, embelin loaded N,O-CMC nanoparticles showed IC50  value between 125-250 µg/ml. In MTT assay, embelin loaded N,O-CMC nanoparticles exhibited a significant reduction in the growth of osteosarcoma MG-63 cells. These findings demonstrating that the embelin loaded N,O-CMC nanoparticles were efficient nanocarrier for delivering embelin to cancer cells.