Abstract
It is well known that silver nanoparticles are a good candidate to be antifungal agent against wide range of plant pathogenic fungi. The objective of this work is to examine the impact of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) synthesized from Aizoon canariense L. aqueous fresh leaf extract as antifungal agent. The formation of AgNPs from leaf extracts are confirmed using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy analysis (FTIR), UV-visible spectrophotometer (UV-visible), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The AgNPs from fresh cold and hot water extracts of A. canariense leaf exhibited highest absorption at 444 and 426 nm, respectively, through ultraviolet visible spectroscopy. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy has verified the transformation of Ag+ ions to AgNPs owing to the reduction by capping material of aqueous plant extract. The X-RD pattern revealed the presence of crystalline having size ranging from 12.95 to 10.83 nm for cold and hot aqueous extract, respectively, based on FWHM of the diffraction peaks. SEM showed that the synthesized AgNPs are semi spherical with an average size between (42 and 183 nm) for NPs from cold water and (29 and 138 nm) for NPs from hot water extracts based on SMILEVIEW software. The synthesized silver nanoparticles from hot water extract showed higher antifungal action than cold water extract in the range between 10.17 and 19.85% against Alternaria alternate, Drechslera halodes, Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. lycopersici, Penicillium expansum, Rhizoctonia solani, Pythium ultimum, and Macrophomina phaseolina. These findings may suggest A. canariense aqueous fresh leaf extract could be applied as a natural solution for biosynthesizing AgNPs as eco-friendly antifungal drug against plant pathogenic fungi.