Characterization of Normal and Ozone Stressed Moringa Mediated Silver (Ag) Nanoparticles (AgNPs) and Plant Crude...

Nanotechnology is the manipulation of matter at the atomic scale and has evolved as a promising discipline with many applications such as medicine, diagnosis, and sensing devices. Plant extracts consist of many important secondary metabolites that have a tendency to interact with metal oxide to form nanoparticles with peculiar features. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are one of the most vital and fascinating nanomaterials that exhibit antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal characteristics. Therefore, in this study, the medicinal plant that is, Moringa oleifera, ozone (stressed and normal) has been used in order to check the inhibition of human pathogenic strains and to synthesize the AgNO₃ NPs. The confirmation of NPs synthesis was done by UV-vis spectroscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, while zeta potential gave the surface charge and stability of NPs. Maximum absorbance peaks were observed in the range of 400 nm. FTIR confirmed that plant secondary metabolites capped and stabilized NPs. The negative zeta potential values of AgNPs showed that nanoparticles have repulsion among themselves, which increases the stability of the formulation. The antibacterial potential of green synthesized nanoparticles and crude extracts of the plants was evaluated against the human pathogenic strains, S. aureus and P. aeruginosa. It was found that ozone-stressed plants' NPs inhibit both of the strains while normal plants' NPs inhibit only P. aeruginosa. The dual functionality of AgNPs exhibits both antibacterial and potential sensor capabilities. Similarly, the crude extract of the ozone-stressed plants was able to inhibit both strains while normal plant extract showed inhibition in S. aureus at higher concentrations and inhibited P. aeruginosa at all concentrations. Our study indicated that Moringa plant-based AgNPs have antibacterial potential as well as that the ozone-stressed plant-based NPs were even more effective, which could be beneficial for the synthesis of novel drugs against human pathogens.