Evaluation of cytotoxic potential of biogenic silver nanoparticles Phytofabricated using Nerium oleander

Green nanotechnology, the miracle of science, has paved the way to green synthesize silver nanoparticles with a wide range of applications ranging from photonics to biomedicine. The Nerium oleander aqueous leaf extract was used to biosynthesize AgNPs, which were confirmed and characterized by biophysical techniques such as UV-Vis, FTIR, XRD, and SEM, respectively. The UV-Vis revealed a maximum absorption peak at 439 nm. FTIR indicated the functional groups present in the plant that serve as reducing and capping agents. By using the XRD diffractogram and Scherrer equation, the crystalline size of the bio-synthesized nanoparticles was found to be 21.3 nm. The SEM analysis revealed the average particle size as 37-38.4 nm with spherical nanoparticles agglomerated without even distribution. In this present study, the Aillum cepa cells were treated with different concentrations of AgNPs (1 mg mL^-1, 5 mg mL^-1, 10 mg mL^-1) along with control sets for different periods (1 and 24 h). The AgNPs have the potential to decrease the number of dividing cells and, in turn, increase the number of aberrant cells. Thus, the biogenic AgNPs caused numerous chromosomal aberrations and indicate their effect towards cytotoxicity. The dose-dependent reduction in abnormality levels (10 mg mL^-1, 24 h, 47.44 ± 0.275) and increase in mitotic index (10 mg mL^-1, 24 h, 56.20 ± 0.324) were recorded after the cytotoxicity assay. The results revealed numerous clastogenic and non-clastogenic aberrations. Thus, it is clear that the AgNPs bio-synthesized from the aqueous leaf extract of N. oleander have cytotoxic properties and have a wide range of applications, especially for curing cancer.