Dini Nur Fauzia, Mochamad Zakki Fahmi, Titik Taufikurohmah, Afaf Baktir
This study presents a novel approach in the synthesis and characterization of pinostrobin-conjugated gold nanoparticles (Pin-AuNPs) to enhance therapeutic efficacy. Pinostrobin, a flavonoid from Boesenbergia rotunda, a traditional medicinal plant, has known antioxidant and anticancer properties but suffers from limited bioavailability and stability. Conjugation with gold nanoparticles aims to overcome these limitations, representing a new discovery in optimizing herbal bioactives for medical applications. Pinostrobin was first isolated from the rhizome of B. rotunda through solvent extraction and purification processes. In this study, pinostrobin-conjugated gold nanoparticles (Pin-AuNPs) were synthesized and evaluated for their antioxidant and anticancer applications. Characterization of Pin-AuNPs was performed using TEM, FT-IR, UV-Visible spectroscopy, and DLS. Antioxidant activity, evaluated via the ABTS assay, showed Pin-AuNPs had stronger radical scavenging (IC50 0.94 µg/mL) than free pinostrobin or AuNPs. Cytotoxicity tests on Huh7it liver cancer cells demonstrated significantly improved anticancer effects, with 97.68% inhibition at 200 µg/mL and an IC50 of 18.38 µg/mL, much lower than free pinostrobin (>200 µg/mL). The enhanced bioactivity is likely due to improved cellular uptake and stress induction by the conjugated nanoparticles. This is the first report of Pin-AuNPs with both superior antioxidant and anticancer effects, suggesting promising applications in nanomedicine and herbal-based cancer therapy. © The Author(s) 2026. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits the use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source is given by providing a link to the Creative Commons license and changes need to be indicated if there are any. The images or other third-party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Faculty of Science and Technology, Universitas Airlangga, Jl. Dr. Ir. H. Soekarno, Mulyorejo, East Java, Surabaya, 60115, Indonesia; Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Technology, Universitas Airlangga, Jl. Dr. Ir. H. Soekarno, Mulyorejo, East Java, Surabaya, 60115, Indonesia; Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Universitas Negeri Surabaya, Jl. Ketintang, East Java, Surabaya, 60231, Indonesia
