Synthesis of biogenic metal nanoparticles using plant extract has gained considerable attention in recent years. The present study aims to synthesize and investigate the cytotoxic effect of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from Dysosma pleiantha rhizome extract. The green biosynthesis of AgNPs was verified by ultraviolet visible spectrometer, and characterized using fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and scanning electron microscopy. Results of microscopic studies revealed that the synthesized AgNPs were a spherical shape with an average size of 76 nm. We also examined the anti-cancer activity of biologically synthesized AgNPs. The dose-dependent cytotoxicity was observed in the breast cancer cell lines MDA-MB-231 and MDA-MB-453 treated with biogenically synthesized AgNPs, and the IC50 was recorded at 33.521 and 36.25 µM respectively. The DNA fragmentation analysis showed that the MDA-MB-231 cells treated with increasing concentrations of AgNPs significantly triggered the fragmentation of DNA. In addition, the synthesized AgNPs exhibited dose dependent cytotoxic potential against human gastric cancer cell lines and the IC50 was recorded at 7.14 µM. Thus, the green biosynthesized AgNPs from D. pleiantha rhizome can be used in the novel development of anticancer drugs.
Keywords: Cytotoxicity; Dysosma pleiantha; FTIR; SEM; Silver nanoparticles.