The Antioxidant, Antibacterial, and Anti-Cancer Properties of Nanoemulsions Synthesized from Mazu Oil

This study was conducted in order to investigate the antioxidant, antibacterial, and anticancer effects of Mazu oil as an important medicinal plant in traditional medicine, which was synthesized by the nanoemulsion method as a new method in medicine.

The antioxidant activity of Mazu oil nanoemulsion was investigated by DPPH radical inhibitory activity assay and its antimicrobial properties on four Gram-positive pathogenic bacteria, including Staphylococcus aureus, Micrococcus luteus, and Gram-negative bacteria Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae were assed by disk diffusion method. To determine the minimum growth inhibitory and growth killer concentration the microbroth dilution method was used. In addition, the anticancer properties of Mazu oil nanoemulsion on prostate cancer cells were investigated by MTT method and the results were compared with normal skin fibroblast cells.

Based on the disc diffusion results, the nanoemulsion of Mazu oil has inhibitory power only against gram-positive pathogens Staphylococcus aureus and Micrococcus luteus, while gram-negative bacteria were resistant to this compound. Mazu oil nanoemulsion has acceptable antioxidant properties and the free radical inhibition rate (IC50) was measured by the DPPH method to be about 58.905 μg/ml. The toxicity test also shows the significant effect of Mazu oil nanoemulsion in destroying prostate cancer cells compared to normal skin fibroblast cells.

The present study shows that the nanoemulsion of Mazu oil in vitro has relative degrees of antioxidant, anticancer and antibacterial properties against Gram positive pathogens, which can be helpful in food products.