Autoclave Mediated Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using Aqueous Extract of Canna indica L. Rhizome and Evaluation of Its Antimicrobial Activity

Current trends will affirm that the use of nanotechnology principles has become an important area of research today, due to the wide range of applications of these technologies in various fields and industries. By the same token, silver nanoparticles have been gaining more importance due to their optical, electrical, thermal and biological properties, when comparing these qualities to other metal nanoparticles. The use of plants for silver nanoparticle synthesis has also drawn attention from the scientific research community, because of its rapid, eco-friendly, non-pathogenic and economical protocols. Thus, in the present study, we report on the synthesis process of silver nanoparticles, by using aqueous rhizome extract of Canna indica Linn. In this case, the silver nanoparticle synthesis was performed by using a simple autoclave method. The utilization of a fixed ratio of plant extract to metal salt was prepared, and the mixture was allowed to autoclave for 15 minutes. The colour change was observed as resembling the hue of red wine, which was evidenced in the noted formation of silver nanoparticles. The synthesized silver nanoparticles were characterized by using UV-Vis spectrophotometer, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HR-TEM) analyses. The silver nanoparticles were witnessed for any noted antimicrobial activity against the identified and selected bacterial strains.