Facile greeny biological nanosynthesis of silver nanoparticle using plant leaf essential oil compound citronellol against human pathogenic fungi

The plant oil compound citronellol is enriched with bioactive compounds and displays multiple biological actions. Thus, the study planned to biosynthesize antifungal potent silver nanoparticles. The synthesized silver nanoparticles were confirmed by color transformation and Ultraviolet-visible (UV-visible) spectrophotometery at 480 nm. The size and morphology of the silver nanoparticles were characterized by Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM) and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM). The presence of chemical compounds in silver nanoparticles was detected by Fourier Transform InfraRed spectroscopy (FTIR). The effect of synthesized silver nanoparticles with citronellol over pathogenic fungi such as Aspergillus niger, Aspergillus flavus, Candida albicans, Candida tropicalis and Candida kefyr were examined which showed very high activity. The appearance of black color confirmed the synthesized silver nanoparticles. The silver nanoparticles showed large round shaped structure under scanning electron microscope and in transmission electron microscope the sizes were about 17 nm.