Parthenium hysterophorus Mediated Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles and its Evaluation of Antibacterial and Antineoplastic Activity to Combat Liver Cancer Cells

The synthesis of nanoparticles by biological routes may leads to the development of clean, non-toxic and environmentally acceptable green chemistry procedures. In this context, the present study was aimed to synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using the leaf extract of Parthenium hysterophorus and to evaluate its antibacterial and anticancer activity. The synthesized AgNPs were characterized by UV–Vis, FTIR, XRD and TEM. The AgNPs were tested against clinical pathogens viz. Escherichia coli , Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Bacillus subtilis , Staphylococcus aureus and Enterococcus faecalis with the maximum zone of inhibition 18, 19, 13, 17 and 12 mm, respectively at 80 µg/ml concentration. The cytotoxic assay (MTT) of synthesized AgNPs against HepG2 liver cancer cells showed significant inhibition by reducing cell viability below 50% at 53 μg/ml concentration promising the anticancer effect. The wound healing assay was performed to confirm the proliferation of HepG2 cells and the inhibition of growth observed at 50 µg/ml concentration in the 24 h treatment of AgNPs when compared with control. It was eventually concluded that the synthesized AgNPs showed promising antibacterial and anticancer activity against HepG2 liver cancer cells by promoting the inhibition of cell proliferation and migration on very low concentration.