Nature-Inspired Polymerization of Quercetin to Produce Antioxidant Nanoparticles with Controlled Size and Skin Tone-Matching Colors

• Published in: Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) Vol. 24; no. 21; p. 3815
• Main Authors: Sunoqrot, Suhair, Al-Shalabi, Eveen, Hasan Ibrahim, Lina, Zalloum, Hiba
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 23-10-2019; MDPI
• Subjects: antioxidant nanoparticles; Antioxidants; Antioxidants - chemical synthesis; Antioxidants - chemistry; Biocompatibility; Biomedical materials; Cell viability; green chemistry; Humans; Infrared spectroscopy; Light scattering; Magnetic resonance spectroscopy; Nanomaterials; Nanoparticles; Nanoparticles - chemistry; Nanotechnology; NMR; NMR spectroscopy; Nuclear magnetic resonance; Oxidation; oxidative self-polymerization; Oxidizing agents; Particle Size; Phenols; Photon correlation spectroscopy; Physicochemical properties; Polymerization; Polyphenols; Quercetin; Quercetin - chemistry; Reagents; Scavenging; Self-assembly; size control; Skin; Skin Pigmentation; Solvents; Spectrum analysis; Structure-function relationships; Transmission electron microscopy; antioxidant nanoparticles; quercetin; size control; green chemistry; oxidative self-polymerization
• ISSN: 1420-3049; 1420-3049
• DOI: 10.3390/molecules24213815

Plant polyphenols have received considerable attention in recent years due to their ability to undergo oxidation-triggered self-polymerization, forming biocompatible versatile coatings and templated nanoparticles (NPs) that can be leveraged for a variety of biomedical applications. Here we show for the first time that untemplated NPs can be conveniently synthesized from the abundant plant polyphenol quercetin (QCT) simply by incubation with an oxidizing agent in a universal organic solvent, followed by self-assembly upon gradual addition of water. The process yielded NPs of around 180-200 nm in size with a range of colors that resembled light to medium-brown skin tones. The NPs were characterized by UV-Vis, FT-IR, and
H-NMR spectroscopy and by dynamic light scattering and transmission electron microscopy to understand their physicochemical properties. Antioxidant and cell viability assays were also conducted to demonstrate the NPs' free-radical scavenging activity and biocompatibility, altogether providing valuable insights into the structure and function of this emerging class of nanomaterials to guide future biomedical applications.