Vitex Agnus-Castus L. Nanoparticles: Preparation, Characterization and Assessment of Antimicrobial and Anticancer Activity

This study was aimed to synthesise antimicrobial and therapeutic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) by green synthesis method using Vitex agnus-castus L. (VAC) seed extract. The synthesised VAC seed extract coated AgNPs were characterised by UV-Vis spectrometry, Zeta analysis and FT-IR spectrometry. The antifungal, antimicrobial, cytotoxicity by MTT assay, and anticarcinogenic activities on HeLa cells line were investigated. VACAgNPs exhibited high antimicrobial activity against S. aureus with a zone diameter of 11.3 +/- 0.6 mm. In addition, the cytotoxicity of VAC-AgNPs was evaluated using the L929 fibroblast cell line and the HeLa cells line, with AgNPs applied at six different concentrations. At a concentration of 5.0 mM, viability was found to be 47.6%+/- 4.2% in L929 fibroblast cells and 39.6%+/- 7.9% in HeLa cells, suggesting a potential antiproliferative effect of VAC-AgNPs on HeLa cancer cells. The IC50 values of VAC-AgNPs against the HeLa cell line were calculated as 2.94 mu g/ml.