Morphological and Biochemical Responses of Vigna radiata L. Seedlings Towards Green Synthesized SiO2 NPs

In agriculture sector demand for nanotechnology-based products in current years, have led to the increasing use of nanoparticles (NPs). Biologically prepared NPs have gained a lot of attraction due to ecofriendly, cost effective, and biocompatible processes. Therefore, current work was design to investigate the effects of green synthesized SiO2 NPs on Vigna radiata L. These SiO2 NPs was evaluated via UV, XRD, SEM and EDX. The average crystalline size of SiO2 NPs was found to be 58.6 nm identified by XRD. Six days old plants (two leaf stage) exposed to SiO2 NPs at 2, 20, 200 and 2000 ppm. Significantly increased in plant length and weight was observed at all concentrations at different intervals, except 20 ppm of SiO2 NPs reduced the plant weight. However, the antioxidant enzymes at 20 ppm treated plant showed various effects. The production of ascorbate peroxidase (APX) increased as compared to control while Catalase (CAT) slightly decrease on third days as compared to initial days but increased as compared to control. Peroxidase level (POD) was initially increased but then reduced later, superoxide dismutase (SOD) also reduced as compared to control. Less Si uptake show at 20 ppm. FT-IR exhibited that 3289.92, 2921 and 610 cm(-1) frequency represent the bonds, which show the dominance of lipids in control plant. While, in SiO2 NPs treated plant (20 ppm) lipid content decrease. The slight decrease in phenolics, while increase in bromo means alkaloids are produced in maximum amount as compared to control plants. Evans blue staining and membrane damage quantification also indicated the slight damage at 20 ppm as compared to control. According to the whole findings, 20 ppm is a little toxic for plant growth. It may be due to a moderate dose. These results suggest that SiO2 NPs exhibit positive effects at higher concentrations and slightly reduce the growth at (20 ppm) mild concentrations.