Abstract
The exploitation of various plant materials for the biosynthesis of nanoparticles is considered a green technology as it does not involve any harmful chemicals. The present study reports the synthesis of silver (Ag) nanoparticles from silver precursor using the bark extract and powder of novel Cinnamon zeylanicum. Water-soluble organics present in the plant materials were mainly responsible for the reduction of silver ions to nano-sized Ag particles. TEM and XRD results confirmed the presence of nano-crystalline Ag particles. The pH played a major role in size control of the particles. Bark extract produced more Ag nanoparticles than the powder did. which was attributed to the large availability of the reducing agents in the extract. Zeta potential studies showed that the surface charge of the formed nanoparticles was highly negative. The EC50 value of the synthesized nanoparticles against Escherichia coli BL-21 strain was 11 +/- 1.72 mg/L Thus C. zeylanicum bark extract and powder are a good bio-resource/biomaterial for the synthesis of Ag nanoparticles with antimicrobial activity. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.