Silver Nanoparticles Synthesis from a Pharmaceutically Important Medicinal Plant Plumbago Zeylanica

1.1.Purpose:In the Ayurvedic system of medicine, Plumbago zeylanica is one of the important medicinal plants which possess several pharmaceutical activities such as antiplasmodial, anti-microbial, antitumour, hepatoprotective, antifungal, anti-inflammatory and anticancer activity. It contains several active constituents and the most important bioactive compound is plumbagin which is a naphthoquinone. Recently nanoparticles have gained its significance in the medical fields due to its higher surface area to volume ratio. In this study silver nanoparticles were synthesised from the in-vitro grown accession of Plumbago zeylanica. 1.2.Materials and Methods:Aqueous extract of aerial part of Plumbago zeylanica accession number 524441 was analyzed for the presence of steroid, reducing sugar, flavonoids, alkaloids, tannin, terpenoids and saponins. Silver nanoparticles were synthesized by mixing the aqueous and silver nitrate solution for 24hrs. Ultraviolet-visible spectroscopy (UV-Vis) was used to detect the formation of silver nanoparticles and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to check the shape of the synthesized nanoparticles. Results:Present investigation deals with the qualitative analysis of phytocompounds present in the Plumbago zeylanica accession number 524441 was done using aqueous extract of the aerial part. It showed positive results for reducing sugar, terpenoid, steroid, flavonoid, glycoside and alkaloid. Further silver nanoparticles synthesis was done and synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by UV-VIS spectroscopy and SEM. Conclusion:This is the first report on rapid and efficient synthesis of silver nanoparticles from the in-vitro grown accession of Plumbago zeylanica. It can be concluded that aerial part of Plumbago zeylanica can be a good source for the silver nanoparticles synthesis.