A study about an emerging approach to enhance the biological properties by incorporating nanoparticles within the hydrogel networks using citric acid, diethyleneglycol, and indole-3-acetic acid a three component hydrogels prepared by polycondensation. A stable and uniformly distributed silver and gold nanoparticles have been introduced successfully in hydrogel network resulted in nanocomposite hydrogels. The surface morphology of silver and gold hydrogel have been compared using scanning electron microscope with energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy analysis and transmission electron microscopy techniques and thermal stability was studied by thermogravimetric analysis. The swelling studies have also been carried out for nanocomposite hydrogels at various pH solution. The nanocomposite hydrogels have exhibited antibacterial activity and nontoxic nature confirmed by the cytotoxicity effect. The results of the study indicated that the nanocomposite hydrogels may be recommended for wound healing applications. Comparatively, silver nanocomposite hydrogel was better performance than gold nanocomposite hydrogel. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 58:2133-2142, 2018. (c) 2018 Society of Plastics Engineers