Leaf Extract of Dendrophthoe falcata: A Renewable Source for the Green Synthesis of Antibacterial Silver Nanoparticles

A facile and ecofriendly method has been developed for the rapid synthesis of silver nanoparticles at room temperature from silver nitrate utilizing the leaf extract of Dendrophthoe falcate, a hemiparasitic plant. The produced nanoparticles were characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy (UV-Vis), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The formation of silver nanoparticles was confirmed from the appearance of surface plasmon absorption maxima at 430 nm in the UV-Vis. The formed nanoparticles are spherical in shape and polydisperse in nature. The size of the particles ranged from 8.5-33.0 nm and the average size was about 17.5 +/- 5.8 nm. The face centered cubic crystalline nature of the nanoparticles is established from the observed peaks corresponding to (111), (200), (220) and (311) planes in the XRD pattern, concentric rings with intermittent bright dots in selected-area electron diffraction pattern and clear lattice fringes in high-resolution TEM image. The possible bioactive substances of the leaf extract involved in reduction and stabilization of nanoparticles has been investigated using Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. The synthesized nanoparticles exhibited significant antibacterial action on both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria, implying their potential biological applications.