Biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles and its application against phytopathogenic bacterium and fungus

Plant diseases are the serious threat to global food security. Many of the current antimicrobial agents for agriculture are highly toxic and non-biodegradable and cause prolonged environmental pollution. In this present research work, seed extract of corn has been used to reduce silver nitrate for the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and to evaluate antimicrobial activity against pathogenic bacterium and fungus. The synthesised biogenic silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) were characterised by UV-Vis, FTIR, XRD, SEM, EDX, TEM and DLS. Scanning electron microscopic (SEM) and Transmission electron microscope (TEM) elicit the formation of spherical-shaped nanoparticles with an average size of 25 nm. X-ray diffraction revealed the FCC nature of nanoparticles. Biosynthetic AgNPs have been shown to be a valuable inhibitory activity against the phytopathogenic fungus Phomopsis vexans by reducing the growth of mycelium by 30-40% in potato dextrose medium. It has been concluded that corn seed extract is capable of synthesising AgNPs with antifungal activity.