Abstract

GREEN SYNTHESIS OF SILVER NANO PARTICLES USING MARINE BROWN ALGA LOBOPHORA VARIEGATA AND ITS EFFICACY IN ANTIFUNGAL ACTIVITY

Thennarasan Sathyaseelan* , Murugesan Subbiah and Vajiravelu Sivamugugan

Abstract

The green synthesis of silver nano particles is an eco-friendly method. In the present study, the aqueous extract of brown marine alga Lobophora variegata was used as a reducing agent for the synthesis silver nano particles (AgNPs), which has economic benefits over chemical and physical processes of synthesis. The synthesized nano particles have been characterized by using UV–Vis spectroscopy, FTIR, TEM and XRD. The formation of AgNPs was confirmed through absorption peak at 420 nm using a UV–visible spectrophotometer. A TEM image showed that the particles are spherical in shape with size ranging from 20 to 50 nm. From the FT-IR results, it can be seen that the reduction has mostly been carried out by sulphated polysaccharides present in Lobophora variegata. The green synthesized silver nano particles were found to be highly toxic against pathogenic fungi Candida albicans and Trichophton mentagrophytes was analyzed by a zone of inhibition method. Thus, the present study indicates AgNPs may have considerable antifungal activity, deserving further investigated for clinical applications.

Keywords: Silver nano particles, Lobophora variegata, XRD, HR-TEM, FT-IR, Antifungal activity.