CHARACTERIZATION AND EVALUATION OF SOME BIOLOGICAL ACTIVITIES OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES SYNTHESIZED USING Trigonella foenum graecum LEAVES’ EXTRACT

Abstract

The green synthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) with the aqueous extract of the leaves of household vegetable, Trigonella foenum-graecum were characterized and tested for their anti-oxidant and anti-bacterial efficacy with sixteen human clinical isolates. The Formation of AgNPs was confirmed with the surface plasmon spectra of the dark brown solution centered at 448 nm.  The Particle size calculated with XRD data was 41.23 nm and the SEM size ranged between 52.56 nm and 80.51 nm.  The presence of -NH and -OH groups that effectively react and reduce Ag⁺ ions to Ag⁰ was evident from the FT-IR spectra.  The particles are predominantly spherical in shape and varied from 5 to 80 nm in size. As Suggested from the analysis by SEM and TEM, majority of them fall between 5 nm and 20 nm. A composite solution of AgNPs with polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) was electrospun into films and tested on 8 human clinical isolates including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA). The PVA-AgNP films showed enormous activity against the MRSA prompting further study as wound dressings in the Wistar albino rat model.  Although the animal study was abruptly terminated owing to the pandemic-induced lock down, the preliminary study results for 9 days suggest the potential clinical applications of these wound dressings.  The synthesized AgNPs with and without PVA demonstrated good anti-oxidant activity and highly significant (P = 0.001) zones of inhibition with eighteen clinical isolates were tested.