BIOGENIC FABRICATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES USING BLEPHARIS CILIARIS EXTRACT AND THEIR ANTIBACTERIAL APPLICATIONS

Recently, multidrug-resistant bacteria have markedly reduced the effectiveness of antibiotics worldwide, a problem that is potentially solvable by the use of biogenic nanoparticles (NP).Here aqueous leaf extract of Blepharis ciliaris was used to synthesize biogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and to determine their antibacterial properties.UV-Visible spectroscopy was used to observe the formation of nanoparticles at various time intervals.The surface plasmon band changed color as the reaction time increased, with a maximum absorption recorded at 400 nm.Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were also used to analyze the size and morphology of the AgNPs.TEM revealed the spherical shape of the nanoparticles, which varied in size from 18 to 50 nm.The elemental composition of AgNPs was determined using energy dispersive spectroscopy (EDS), which showed strong signals at ~3 keV in the silver (Ag) zone.Finally, the antibacterial activity of AgNPs was assessed using the well diffusion method against some pathogenic bacteria.All of the bacteria tested proved susceptible, with E. coli and B. subtilis being inhibited more than S. aureus and S. Typhimurium.