Abstract

There is an increasing demand commercially for the bio synthesis of metallic nanoparticles, due to its catalytic property and wider application in medicine, pharmaceutical, agriculture, defense etc. Casuarina equisetifolia is a tree species, with high calorific value which is widely cultivated to improve the soil nutrient, but its evaluation in the field of pharmacology is still under explored. The present study is a novel work where we report the synthesis of Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) using Casuarina equisetifolia leaf extract as a potential reducing agent, with the help of 0.1mM of silver nitrate solution. Various optimization parameters like temperature, pH and time for synthesis were optimized. Thus the particles synthesized under this optimized condition were characterized using UV-Vis spectrophotometer, Fourier transform-infrared (FT-IR), X-ray diffraction (XRD) and Transmission electron microscope (TEM). Surface Plasma resonance peak of the synthesized nanoparticles was observed at 418nm, using UV-Vis spectrophotometer. FTIR spectrum was analyzed to identify the effective functional molecules, which are responsible for the reduction and stabilization of silver nanoparticles synthesized by leaf extract. XRD results confirmed the crystalline structure of the synthesized AgNO 3 . The photocatalytic activity of the synthesized silver nanoparticles was observed to have potential efficacy to degrade methylene blue dye under sunlight irradiation. This was confirmed by the decrease in maximum absorbance of methylene blue dye with respect to time using UV-Vis spectrophotometer. The bio synthesized silver nanoparticles , effectively degraded nearly 35.13% of methylene blue dye at 5 hours of exposure time. The results clearly figure out that the biogenic silver nanoparticles synthesized from Casuarina equisetifolia can find its applications in textile industries, water treatment plants and also in pharmaceutical industry to prevent the adverse effect caused by methylene blue, like painful micturition, methymoglobinemia.