A green approach for the synthesis of α-Fe2O3 nanoparticles from Gardenia resinifera plant and it's In vitro hyperthermia application.

The Gardenia, traditional medicinal plant used from ancient time to increase appetite and other medicinal uses has been employed for the synthesis of superparamagnetic α-Fe₂O₃ nanoparticles (NPs). The plant extracts unveiled its bifunctional nature through the reducing ferric ions by phenolic groups and capping nature through the -OH bonding over the NPs surface. The prepared NPs exhibits α-Fe₂O₃ phase among iron oxides and spherical morphology with an average size around 5 nm. The magnetic measurements proved the superparamagnetic behavior of NPs with non-saturating M_S value of 8.5 emu/g at room temperature (300 K). Further, the hyperthermia study reveals, the NPs achieved a temperature of 40 °C and 43 °C within 6 min and reaches up to 43 °C and 45 °C within 10 min only for 5 μg/mL and 10 μg/mL concentrations respectively. Based on the heating profile of NPs, the SAR values (167.7 Oe, 300 MHz) calculated and are found to be around 62.75 W/g and 24.38 W/g for 5 μg/mL and 10 μg/mL NPs concentrations respectively. Subsequently, these have been used for toxicity assays, which presented enhanced cytotoxic effects on human mesenchymal cells lines proving them as a potential candidate for the biomedical applications.