Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles from aqueous extract of Ctenolepis garcini L. and assess their possible biological applications

[Display omitted] •The aqueous leaf extract of Ctenolepis garcini has potential to AgNO3 into AgNPs.•Green synthesized AgNPs characterized & confirmed by UV–vis, TEM, EDX, FTIR, & XRD.•AgNPs has excellent larvicidal activity against 1st instar larvae of Ae. aegypti.•C. garcini synthesized AgNPs has antibacterial & antioxidant (DPPH & ABTS) activity.•This AgNPs effectively inhibit the HepG2 cell line activity at IC50 of 33.78 μg mL−1. The AgNPs synthesized from aqueous leaf extract of Ctenolepis garcini were observed spectrophotometrically (at 415 nm) reflecting sharp peaks. The X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) data have shown four distinct diffraction peaks that were directly related to the crystal structure of the silver molecule. The noticeable peaks such as the peaks at 1741.51 cm−1, 1630.07 cm−1, 1383.11 cm−1, 769.73 cm−1, and 703.76 cm−1 were noticed in the synthesized AgNPs using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR). About 20−50 nm sized and cubic shaped nanoparticles were observed under Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis. Furthermore, the Energy Dispersive X-ray (EDX) analysis identified the chemical nature of the AgNPs. These synthesized AgNPs had an excellent insecticidal activity against the I-IV instar larvae of Ae. Aegypti. Furthermore, it showed good antibacterial activity against Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Shigella boydii. The plant based AgNPs revealed excellent DPPH (71.25 %) and ABTS (64.15%) radical scavenging activities. The MTT assay results stated that the synthesized nanoparticles had the potential to repress the propagation of the HepG2 cell line with an IC50 of 33.78 ± 1.32 μg mL−1. The attained results suggested that the C. garcini based AgNPs would be a potential candidate for various biological applications. This green extract based AgNPs production could be significant to produce low cost and ecofriendly nanoparticles with multi-potentiality.