Original research article Fruit waste (peel) as bio-reductant to synthesize silver nanoparticles with antimicrobial, antioxidant and cytotoxic activities Annu a , Shakeel Ahmed a,d , Gurpreet Kaur b,c , Praveen Sharma c , Sandeep Singh c , Saiqa Ikram a, * a Jamia Millia Islamia, Department of Chemistry, Bio/Polymers Research Laboratory, New Delhi, India b Central University of Punjab, Centre for Environmental Science and Technology, Bathinda, India c Central University of Punjab, Centre for Human Genetics and Molecular Medicine, Laboratory of Molecular Medicine, Bathinda, India d Department of Chemistry, Government Degree College Mendhar, Jammu and Kashmir, India ARTICLE INFO Article history: Received 21 March 2017 Received in revised form 8 December 2017 Accepted 5 February 2018 Available online 12 March 2018 Keywords: Biosynthesis Citrus fruits Silver nanoparticles Antimicrobial Antioxidant Anticancer ABSTRACT Since last decade, biogenic synthesis of metal or metal-oxide nanoparticles is emerging as an alternative method, which is environment friendly, simple and safe to use. In this article, fruit waste (peel) extract (FWE) of three citrus fruits viz. Citrus limon, Citrus sinensis, and Citrus limetta were used as bio-reductant for green and sustainable synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs). As-synthesised AgNPs were characterized by using UV–vis spectroscopy, Dynamic light scattering, and High Resolution Transmission Electron Microscopy. TEM studies revealed 9–46 [116_TD$DIFF]nm size range of synthesized AgNPs. The antimicrobial and antioxidant activities were also studied by using Agar well diffusion method and DPPH Assay, respectively. Nanoparticles showed good antimicrobial activity against both Gram positive (S. aureus) and Gram negative (E. coli) bacteria. Further, bioactivity assays revealed selective cytotoxicity (anticancer) of the nanoparticles against human lung cancer cell line A549. The nanoparticles are able to induce cancer cell specific apoptosis at G0/G1 phase of cell cycle. The results showed potential mechanism of action of nanoparticles via augmentation of antioxidant system in cancer cells. Over all, this study show multifaceted potential bioactivities of nanoparticles generated from fruit waste. © 2018 Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice. Published by Elsevier Sp. z o.o. All rights reserved. Introduction Nowadays green chemistry is an emphasized area of research and require some additional efforts for the implementation of sustainable methods in order to achieve the desirable products as well as to minimize and further eliminate the waste materials produced (Anastas and Warner, 1998; Raveendran et al., 2003). Nanotechnology, an emerging field of research not only concise to materials instead include biological, medical and engineering also, hence introduced nanobiotechnology, a novel multidisciplinary approach which serves as domineering technique in developing and congregation of the nanoparticles via green methods for biomedical applications (Iravani et al., 2014). Nanoparticles have an ample of applications in various fields such as energy science, catalysis, light emitters, photo-electrochemical, single electron transistors, mechanics, optics, electronics, optoelectronics, non- linear optical devices, space industries, chemical industries, biomedical sciences, drug delivery, tissue engineering, food, health care and cosmetics (Gupta and Gupta, 2005; Iravani et al., 2014; Scaramuzza et al., 2016; Wang and Herron, 1991). Among various nanoparticles such as Ag, Au, Ce, Pd, Pt and Zn, (Ahmed et al., 2016b, 2017a) AgNPs are well known for their constructive and beneficial inhibitory biomedical properties such as antibacterial (Sharma et al., 2009), antifungal (Paná9 cek et al., 2009), antiviral (Trefry and Wooley, 2012), larvicidal activity, anti-inflammatory (David et al., 2014), and anti-angiogenesis (Baharara et al., 2014; Veerasamy et al., 2011) against different microbes, bacteria and fungi. Amid them, AgNPs also exhibits good catalytic activity with favourable thrombolytic as well as anticoagulant applications (Azeez et al., 2017b). Conventionally, variable methods have been developed till date such as physical methods including thermal decomposition (Esumi * [115_TD$DIFF]Author for correspondence: Jamia Millia Islamia, Department of Chemistry, Bio/ Polymers Research Laboratory, 110025 New Delhi, India. E-mail addresses: shakeelchem11@gmail.com (S. Ahmed), sikram@jmi.ac.in (S. Ikram). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jab.2018.02.002 1214-021X/© 2018 Faculty of Health and Social Sciences, University of South Bohemia in Ceske Budejovice. Published by Elsevier Sp. z o.o. All rights reserved. Journal of Applied Biomedicine 16 (2018) 221–231 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Journal of Applied Biomedicine journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/jab