Medical and cytotoxicity effects of green synthesized silver nanoparticles using Achillea millefolium extract on MOLT-4 lymphoblastic leukemia cell line.

Green chemistry, which aims at the development of efficient methods for the synthesis of nanoparticles, is a relatively new emerging field of nanotechnology, which has economic and environment-friendly benefits over chemical and physical processes. The present work was carried out to develop silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) using the plant (Achillea millefolium or yarrow) aqueous extract as both a reducing and capping agent under the green synthesis method. Characterization of synthesized Ag-NPs was done using IR spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and ultraviolet-visible (UV-vis). The UV-vis spectrum showed the maximum absorbance at around 440-470 nm, which suggested the formation of green synthesized Ag-NPs. The morphological study demonstrated that the Ag-NPs were spherical in shape with an average size of 22.4 ± 7.4 nm. The antimicrobial activities of Ag-NPs against Fusarium and Aspergillus niger species of fungal and Escherichia coli species of bacteria were investigated through the disc diffusion and well-diffusion method using their zone of inhibition. The cytotoxicity effect of Ag-NPs on cell lines MOLT-4 was evaluated by using MTT assay. These nanoparticles showed remarkable antimicrobial activity against bacterias and fungus in low concentration. The cytotoxicity studies showed that IC of green synthesized Ag-NPs was 0.011 µm in comparison to 1.8 for Cisplatin which more active than anticancer drug for MOLT-4 cell line. The results showed that the green synthesized Ag-NPs are expected to have notable applications and can be potentially useful in pharmaceutical and biomedical applications.