SYNTHESIS AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES USING TABERNAEMONTANA DIVARICATA AND ITS CYTOTOXIC ACTIVITY AGAINST MCF-7 CELL LINE Original Article

Objective: Tabernaemontana divaricata a common garden plant on tropical countries has been used as a traditional medicine. There is an increasing commercial demand for nanoparticles due to their wide applicability in various areas such as electronics, catalysis, chemistry, energy, and medicine. Metallic nanoparticles are traditionally synthesized by wet chemical techniques, where the chemicals used are quite often toxic and flammable. In this work, we describe a cost effective and environment friendly technique for green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from T. divaricata leaf extract. Methods: Biosynthesized AgNPs were characterized using UV– Vis absorption spectroscopy, TEM, FTIR and SEM analysis. Cytotoxicity of AgNPs was tested in human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). Results: TEM analysis showed the average particle size of 22.85 nm as revealed in their structure. The qualitative assessment of reducing potential of leaf extract has also been carried out which indicated presence of significant amount of reducing entities. Green synthesized AgNPs by T. divaricata leaf extract show cytotoxicity to human breast cancer cell line (MCF-7). Conclusion: The most important outcome of this work will be the development of value-added products from T. divaricata. The characteristics of the obtained AgNPs were analysed which could be used potentially in various human contacting areas such as cosmetics, foods, and medical