Traditional painless depilatory agents their nanoparticle incorporated biodegradable skin substitutes and their potential application in biological activities

Abstract

Nowadays, cosmetics are playing an major role in the human lifestyle to maintain personal appearance. Depilation (using creams) is the commonly used method to remove unwanted hair with fewer side effects. Artificial skin substitutes are essential in replacing damaged skin. Most of the hair removal techniques are costly and working with toxic chemicals. For skin substitutes, biodegradable skin substitutes are essential and one of the growing researches. The present study mainly focuses on utilizing natural sources and nanoparticles for painless hair removal and skin substitute applications. Gold nanoparticles, reduced graphene oxide, and gold nanoparticles-reduced graphene oxide composite were synthesized using Cyperus rotundus (tuber), Hemigraphis alternata (leaves), and Pumice stone. Important capping agents present in these samples involve reducing gold and graphene oxide into gold nanoparticles and reduced graphene oxide, respectively. The prepared nanoparticles are characterized for their formation, size, functional groups, and texture using spectroscopy techniques. Anticancer (Skin cancer-A431 and normal cell line-HEK-293) and antibacterial activity (Gram-positive and negative bacteria) were carried out for gold nanoparticles, reduced graphene oxide, and gold nanoparticles-reduced graphene oxide composite. Prepared nanoparticles showed higher toxicity against cancer cell lines and minimum toxicity against normal cell lines. Gold nanoparticles using Cyperus rotundus (tuber), Hemigraphis alternata (leaves), and Pumice stone show excellent biological activities than other nanoparticles. A less chemical depilatory cream was formulated using selected samples and their gold nanoparticles. The depilation activity of prepared samples was tested by calculating the breaking time of human hair using a fabricated glass depilation tester. The prepared depilatory samples break the hair in 3-10 minutes. The prepared gold nanoparticles were incorporated into biodegradable skin substitutes with biodegradable polymer material