Enhancing antibacterial, antifungal, and anticancer potential of zinc oxide nanorods using Trillium govanianum extract

The benefit of using plants for nanoparticle synthesis is that they are readily available, safe to handle, economical, cost-effective, biocompatible, less toxic, and contain a wide range of metabolites that may aid in the process of reduction. Herein, we synthesized ZnO nanorods using Trillium govanianum plant extract and the synthesized nanorods were characterized by different methods. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern showed that the nanorods are pure and highly crystalline with an average crystallite size of 18.65 nm. Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FESEM) revealed the smooth rod-like assembly, whereas ultraviolet (UV) visible showed that the bandgap of nanorods is 3.17eV. The synthesized ZnO nanorods were used to evaluate their possible antibacterial, anticandidal, antifungal, and anticancer properties. The antibacterial and anticandidal activity of ZnO NPs was examined by the well disc diffusion method against two clinical strains of Escherichia coli (E. coli) , Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeruginosa) based on the zone of inhibition and minimal inhibitory indices (MIC). The result of the antibacterial study indicated that ZnO nanorods have appreciable antibacterial activity in E. coli and S. aureus as compared to P. aeruginosa, whereas in the case of fungi, zinc oxide nanorods showed good fungal inhibition against Fusarium spp. (58.31%), Sclerotinia sclerotiorum (61.37%), and Rosellinia necatrix (65.42%) . Cytotoxicity studies were carried out over three cell lines i.e., C6 (rat glioma cell line), MDA-MB-231 (human breast cancer cell line), and L929 (fibroblast cell line) to check the anti-proliferative activity of ZnO nanorods, which showed 85% of cells remained viable and are nontoxic in nature. Therefore, the findings provide insight into structure–function relationships in biogenically synthesized ZnO nanorods and may inform future studies focused on mechanistic understanding and application-specific evaluation. Green synthesized nanomaterials are a good alternative to chemical synthesis since they are eco-friendly and pollutant free.