Anticancer, antimicrobial, and dye degradation activity of biosynthesised silver nanoparticle using Artemisia kopetdaghensis

Biosynthesis of nanoparticles (NPs) is gaining attention due to the presence of functional plant macromolecules that benefit from NPs’ synthesis and also due to their exceptional bioactive compounds. Artemisia kopetdaghensis extract acted as a reducing/capping agent. Characterisation of greener-synthesised AgNPs (Ak-AgNPs) was performed by various techniques, such as Ultraviolet (UV)−visible spectrophotometry, TEM, Fourier transform infrared, and XRD. Ak-AgNPs indicated great bactericidal properties in terms of zone of inhibition (ZI) against all of the pathogenic bacteria (i.e. Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Streptococcus pyogenes, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Staphylococcus aureus). The maximum ZI of Ak-AgNPs was 22.3 and 17.8 mm against K. pneumoniae and S. aureus, respectively. Anti-proliferative activity of Ak-AgNPs on human hepatocellular cancer cell line (HepG2) using the MTT test showed dosage-dependent inhibition activity of Ak-AgNPs against HepG2 cancer cells. Also, green-synthesised Ak-AgNPs showed catalytic properties under UV-light in organic dye (methylene blue) degradation. This study revealed that the green-synthesised AgNPs using A. kopetdaghensis shoots extract had antibacterial and catalytic activities. Also, Ak-AgNPs had anti-proliferative potential against human liver cancer cell lines. The green-synthesised Ak-AgNPs have the potential to be exploited in anti-bacterial, anticancer, and biocatalyst technologies.