Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles using Rosmarinus officinalis Leaf Oil and its Antimicrobial Activity against Vaginal Candidiasis

Author(s): B. Asha Nancy and K. Elumalai*

Abstract: Biosynthesis of nanoparticles is under exploration is due to wide biomedical applications and research interest in nanotechnology. In the present work, we describe the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) using leaf oil extract of Rosmarinus officinalis and its fungal activity. UV–visible spectroscopy, XRD, FTIR, SEM, TEM and EDX analyses were performed to ascertain the formation of Ag NPs. The synthesized Ag NPs were characterized by a peak at 450nm in the UV–visible spectrum. XRD confirmed the crystalline nature of the nanoparticles of 82.46 nm size. The XRD peaks at 38.06◦, 44.35◦, 64.51◦ and 77.36◦ can be indexed to the (111), (200), (220) and (311) Bragg’s reflections of cubic structure of metallic silver, respectively. The FTIR result clearly showed that the extracts containing OH as a functional group act in capping the nanoparticles synthesis. SEM shows the 3D topological characteristic of Ag NPs. This reveals that the powder particles are slightly agglomerated but its size range of 82.46nm and the closed view of needle nanoparticle. TEM images revealed that all Nanoparticles observed from the micrograph majority are spherical with a small percentage of elongated particles and ranged in size of 35–60nm with an average size of 45nm. Antifungal activity of Ag NPs was tested against Vaginal Candidiasis such as Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis and Candida kefyr using standard well diffusion method. The maximum zone of inhibition was observed in the Ag NPs against Candida tropicalis (22.23 mm) and Candida kefyr (16.13 mm). The results suggest that the synthesized Ag NPs act as an effective antifungal agent. It is confirmed that Ag NPs are capable of rendering high antifungal efficacy and hence has a great potential in the preparation of drugs used against fungal diseases.

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