Biocompatible pericarpium citri reticulatae polysaccharide templated Pd nanoparticles for effectively colorimetric detection of glutathione

Glutathione as a natural antioxidant can protect the human body from free radicals produced by oxidative stress. Therefore, it’s quite necessary to measure the concentration of glutathione to ensure our health. Herein, we prepared biocompatible pericarpium citri reticulatae polysaccharide templated palladium nanoparticles (Pdn-PCRP NPs, n = 150, 225, 300) by a green and facile synthetic method. The sizes of Pd150-PCRP NPs, Pd225-PCRP NPs, and Pd300-PCRP NPs were 2.10 ± 0.62 nm, 2.48 ± 0.62 nm, and 2.63 ± 0.62 nm, respectively. Pd150-PCRP NPs exhibited excellent biocompatibility based on the MTT assay. Moreover, Pd150-PCRP NPs oxidized the colorless peroxidase substrates 3,3′,5,5′ -tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) to its corresponding blue product in the presence of hydrogen peroxide. More importantly, Pd150-PCRP NPs were used in the colorimetric detection of glutathione. The detection range of colorimetric detection with Pd150-PCRP NPs reached 2–300 μM and the detection limit was 1.65 μM. The recovery rate of glutathione in serum samples was as high as 103.60 %. Overall, these results demonstrated that Pd150-PCRP NPs had good biocompatibility, peroxidase-like activity and ability of glutathione detection. Pd150-PCRP NPs could serve as a safe and promising agent for sensitive detection of glutathione in future applications [Display omitted] •Pericarpium citri reticulatae polysaccharide templated palladium nanoparticles (Pdn-PCRP NPs) were prepared.•Pd150-PCRP NPs displayed high peroxidase-like activity.•Pd150-PCRP NPs exhibited excellent biocompatibility based on MTT experiments.•Pd150-PCRP NPs were used to detect glutathione with the detection range of 2–300 μM and the detection limit of 1.63 μM.