Influence of gold and silver nanoparticles on the germination and growth of Mimusops laurifolia seeds in the South-Western regions in Saudi Arabia

In the Saudi Arabia, the tree of Mimusops laurifolia is suffering from a severe slow growth, in addition to their weakness of natural regeneration, and lack of artificial regeneration to improve their renewal growing. This tree is suffering from extinction because of the misuse of them. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of gold (Au) particles and silver (Ag) nanoparticles to speed the germination and growth of Mimusops laurifolia trees. This study shows the importance of nanotechnology to contribute the topic of scientific researches and to enrich the scientific libraries of new and affective techniques in the field of physics and botany. We have tried to study the effect of gold and silver nanoparticles on the seeds of Mimusops laurifolia. After the treatments by these granules' nanoparticles on germination, the result was completely negative and there was no germination and in all the transactions the germination rate were zero, even after the usage of Sulphuric acid to seeds to soften the test of the seed. This study concludes by following-up the leaf growth of seedlings of Mimusops laurifolia after the treatments of gold and silver nanoparticles, it was noted as positive impact of silver nanoparticles, and there was obvious increase in both number and size of the leaves compared with the seedlings, which has transmitted by gold nanoparticles and with the control seedling. (C) 2019 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of King Saud University.