Cichorium intybus Leaves Extract in Varying Solvent Systems for the Production of Platinum Nanoparticles: Design and Development of a Green Approach

Abstract The clinical medicine, also referred to as biomedicine, is being revolutionised by the growing usage of nanotechnology. Platinum nanoparticles (PtNPs), due to its stability and other properties, are found to be particularly more effective in biomedicine. However, the traditional chemical and physical methods of production of PtNPs have brought about some severe concerns to environmental and human health directly, or indirectly that mainly includes land and water pollution. There is need to overcome such concerns raised by replacing traditional methods by environment friendly ones. For this purpose, Cichorium intybus (C. Intybus) is a significant member of the Asteraceae family of medicinal plants, and has been used in traditional medicine for almost a century. In this research, for synthesis of nanoparticles via sustainable, green and environment friendly approach, C. Intybus leaves extract is used as a precursor. For this, leaves were extracted under five different solvent systems such as 80% methanol, 80% ethanol, methanol (absolute), ethanol (absolute), and de-ionized water. The phytochemical analysis reflected that the greatest extract yield (12.79 g/100 g DW) was obtained from leaves in an 80% methanolic solvent solution. The results indicated that the 80% methanolic leaf extract had the highest total phenolic content (93.24 mg GAE/g DW) and the maximum total flavonoid content (8.92 mg CE/g DW) of methanolic leaf extract. 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DDPH) radical scavenging activity and reducing power were used to determine antioxidant activity. The results revealed that 80% methanolic leaf extract showed the highest level of radical scavenging activity and reducing potential. In UV-visible spectroscopy, a colour change and a surface resonance plasmon band at 295 nm confirmed the production of PtNPs in the reaction mixture. The green methods of nanoparticles like the one presented in this study, have a promising potential to minimize negative impacts on the environmental health. This study paves a path for further research and development in this regard.