Abstract
The importance of studying polyphenols as natural antioxidants has encouraged the search for new methods of rapid, simple analysis. The synthesis of silver Nanoparticles (Ag NPs) using plant extracts has been presented as an alternative to determine the presence of polyphenolic compounds. In this study, aqueous extract of chilca (Baccharis latifolia), an endemic plant species from South America known for its medicinal properties, was used. This extract, because of its composition, can convert Ag+ ions to Ag0 in a chemical reduction process. To determine the optimal conditions for microwave-assisted nanoparticle synthesis, factorial experimental designs were used and analyzed with Statgraphics software. Ag NPs characterization was carried out with transmission electron microscopy; synthesized nanoparticles measured 4.86±2.44 nm on average. For the extract and Ag NPs, total polyphenolic content and antioxidant capacity were determined using oxygen radical absorbance capacity and cyclic voltammetry analysis. The method used to prepare both plant extracts and Ag NPs was determined to be fast and reliable. In addition to being a green and economical, this method allows the direct measurement of the plant extract’s total polyphenolic content and antioxidant capacity using analytical techniques that may be potentially applicable in the pharmaceutical industry.
Highlights
Nanomaterials are presently studied with great interest because of their novel properties (Roco and Bainbridge, 2005; Whitesides, 2005; Zaman et al, 2014)
The experimental design was applied to determine the optimal conditions for the preparation of the aqueous extract of B. latifolia leaves
The plant mass had a negative effect on both wavelength and absorbance, indicating that a low proportion of the aqueous extract of B. latifolia leaves should be maintained to maximize absorbance; this would affect the size of the Ag NPs synthesized with the extract
Summary
Nanomaterials are presently studied with great interest because of their novel properties (Roco and Bainbridge, 2005; Whitesides, 2005; Zaman et al, 2014). Ag NPs are used for other applications, such as in textiles, cosmetics, instrument analysis and water treatment (Jini and Sharmila, 2020) This versatility is the result of its high surface ratio with respect to the volume presented by the material (Zheng and Wang, 2001; Sotiriou et al, 2011; Zaman et al, 2014). The current chemical method has some disadvantages, including the use of expensive, toxic and dangerous reducing reagents, which negatively affect both the profitability of the process and the environment (Tripathi et al, 2019) An alternative to this method is green synthesis, a technique that consists in taking advantage of a plant’s phytochemical composition, given that several of its compounds have reducing and stabilizing properties that can be used to produce Ag NPs
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