Employing biological materials, like plant extracts, for synthesizing various metallic nanoparticles proves to be more rapid, low-cost, and eco-friendly technology for large-scale production. In this research silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were synthesized using aqueous leaf (LSA-AgNPs) and root (LSR-AgNPs) extracts of Lythrum salicaria L., a plant know as purple loosestrife which is traditionally used for inflammatory diseases, gastrointestinal ailments, dysentery, and as astringent for external use. The aim of this study was to evaluate the cytotoxic activity of synthesized silver nanoparticles against two normal cell lines (Human keratinocyte cell lines (HaCaT) and standard fibroblast cell line (3T3)) and two cancer cell lines (Human epidermoid carcinoma cells (A431) and fibroblasts cells (BalbC-3 T3)). For determination of cytotoxicity of LSA-AgNPs and LSR-AgNPs, cells seeded in 96-well plates were treated with different concentrations of LSA-AgNPs and LSR-AgNPs. After 48h incubation, cell viability was assessed by the MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay. The obtained results showed low toxicity of nanoparticles applied at concentrations up to 25 µg/mL on all tested cell lines. Interestingly, LSR-AgNPs showed higher toxicity on A431 compared with HaCaT cells at the concentration of 100 µg/mL. Considering observed selective cytotoxicity of LSR-AgNPs on normal and cancer cells, obtained nanoparticles deserve further research to find potential mechanisms of their selective cytotoxicity.

This work was supported by the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia (Agreements No. 451-03-68/2020-14/200122 and 451-03-68/2020-14/200378).