Mangifera indica L. leaf assisted biosynthesis and characterization of silver nanoparticles and their antifungal activity against plant pathogen Aspergillus niger Tiegh.

The biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles is an emerging field in nanotechnology. There are several different methods to prepare silver nanoparticles depending upon their uses such as in the pharmaceutical and textile industries, and the field of medicine. One of the most important applications of silver nanoparticles is their antifungal activity against different plant pathogenic fungi. In this study, a cost-effective and environment-friendly method was used to synthesize silver nanoparticles using leaf extract of different varieties of Mangifera indica L. The varieties used in this study were Fajri, Malta, Sinduri, Sufaid Chaunsa, and Langra. The aqueous extract of the leaves of mango acted as reducing and stabilizing agents for the silver nanoparticles. The formation of silver nanoparticles was confirmed by the UV-Vis spectroscopy in which a surface plasmon resonance peak within the range of 448-454 nm was observed. FTIR analysis was also performed which showed the bands between 3738 cm-1 to 432 cm-1 which confirmed the presence of different chemical groups. Silver nanoparticles were further characterized by the scanning electron microscopy which revealed the sizes of the nanoparticles within the range of 12-235 nm. After characterization, the antifungal activity of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles was evaluated. From the results, it was concluded that all the varieties showed a greater inhibitory effect at the concentration of 100 mg/L, but it was observed that silver nanoparticles prepared by the leaf extract of cv. Fajri exhibited a greater inhibitory effect against Aspergillus niger having a percent inhibition of 79.8%.