Green biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles from Annona squamosa leaf extract and its in vitro cytotoxic effect on MCF-7 cells

► For the first time, the green synthesis of silver nanoparticles using Annona squamosa leaf extract was described. ► The synthesized AgNPs were characterized by UV–visible, XRD, FTIR, Zeta potential measurement and TEM-EDS analyses. ► AgNPs exhibited in vitro cytotoxicity effect against selected human breast cancer cells. ► It also induced apoptosis and fragment nuclei in selected cancer cells. The biological method for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using Annona squamosa leaf extract and its cytotoxicity against MCF-7 cells are reported. The synthesized AgNPs using A. squamosa leaf extract was determined by UV–visible spectroscopy and it was further characterized by FT-IR, X-ray diffraction (XRD), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Zeta potential and energy dispersive spectrometric (EDS) analysis. The UV–visible spectrum showed an absorption peak at 444nm which reflects surface plasmon resonance (SPR) of AgNPs. TEM photography showed biosynthesized AgNPs were predominantly spherical in shape with an average size ranging from 20 to 100nm. The Zeta potential value of −37mV revealed the stability of biosynthesized AgNPs. Furthermore, the green synthesized AgNPs exhibited a dose-dependent cytotoxicity against human breast cancer cell (MCF-7) and normal breast epithelial cells (HBL-100) and the inhibitory concentration (IC50) were found to be 50μg/mL, 30μg/mL, and 80μg/mL, 60μg/ml for AgNPs against MCF-7 and normal HBL-100 cells at 24h and 48h incubation respectively. An induction of apoptosis was evidenced by (AO/EtBr) and DAPI staining. Application of such eco-friendly nanoparticles makes this method potentially exciting for the large scale synthesis of nanoparticles.