Physicochemical investigations of zinc oxide nanoparticles synthesized from Azadirachta Indica (Neem) leaf extract and their interaction with Calf-Thymus DNA

Zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONps) have been extensively explored for various biological applications because of their characteristic biocompatibility, antimicrobial activity and wound healing. Green synthesis is an environment friendly alternate as compared to chemical synthesis, hence ZnONps using Azadirachta Indica (Neem) leaf extract have been synthesized in this study. ZnONps were then characterized using different analytical techniques including UV-Visible spectroscopy, FTIR, XRD, SEM, FESEM and EDAX. Interaction studies of ZnONps with Calf-Thymus DNA (CT-DNA) have further been investigated utilizing UV-Visible, UV-thermal, Fluorescence, Circular Dichroism spectroscopy and agarose gel electrophoresis. ZnONps exhibited a sharp peak around 368 nm in absorption spectra, confirming their synthesis. The surface morphology of ZnONps was examined by SEM & FESEM and the size was found in range 20-40 nm. After correlating all data, interaction of CT-DNA with ZnONps suggested the stabilization of DNA. These physicochemical investigations could further give insights for biosensing and biomedical applications.