In vitro preparation of biosurfactant based herbal-nano topical ointment from Tridax procumbens infused oil using gelatin stabilized silver nanoparticle and its efficacy on fibroblastic cell lines

Ointments are widely used as topical medication as a mode of transdermal drug delivery for treatment of skin lesions. In this study, Tridax procumbens infused oil (oil phase) and Gelatin stabilized silver nanoparticle (Aqueous phase) were blended with natural biosurfactant extracted from Lactobacillus casei (MT012285) to prepare an ointment for topical wounds. GC–MS of infused oil showed the presence of pentadecanoic acid and 1,19-eicosadiene. FT-IR studies show the presence of aliphatic and amino group of biosurfactant from L. casei confirm the presence of lipopeptide, which can form stable W/O emulsion in ointment. The prepared ointment shows higher microbial reduction capacity on clinical pathogens tested namely Escherichia coli, Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Klebsiella pneumoniae . Further, herbal-nano-ointment exhibits minimal hemolytic action on human red blood cells at 100 µg/mL. At higher concentration of 4.0 mg/mL of ointment low cytotoxic effect on L929 fibroblastic cell line was observed. Cell migration rate of 62% was recorded at 24 h using wound scratch assay. Based on the study we find that biosurfactant-based nano-topical ointment from T. procumbens oil with G-AgNPs, has low cytotoxic effect and a high cell migration rate and hence can be used in the topical application for treatment of wound.