Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles through green caviar Caulerpa lentillifera and its phytotoxicity on Allium ascolanicum

Abstract

Caulerpa lentillifera, one of the edible marine seaweeds, was used to synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) in this study. According to the results, optimum conditions such as initial biomass concentration, AgNO₃ concentration, pH, temperature, agitation rate for the synthesis of AgNPs by using C. lentillifera were 0.01 g/mL, 8 mM AgNO₃, pH 10, 85 °C and 0 rpm, respectively. The calculated particle sizes of the synthesized AgNPs were 22.3 nm. The characterizations of synthesized AgNPs were carried out through UV-Vis spectrophotometry, FT-IR and XRD. The development shoot and root of shallot (Allium ascalonicum) experiments were tested to evaluate the phytotoxicity of synthesized C. lentillifera-based AgNPs. The phytotoxic effect of C. lentillifera-based AgNPs was found to be dose dependent. Since the phytotoxicity of the AgNPs synthesized in the study is evaluated, its industrial applications in the food, medicine, pharmacy and agriculture industries can be further considered based on the usage doses.

Keywords:

• Caulerpa lentillifera
• silver nanoparticles
• bionanomaterials
• green synthesis
• phytotoxicity

Acknowledgements

Hacer Kandemir is thankful to YÖK (The Higher Education Instituon of Turkey) for 100/2000 PhD scholarship and TÜBİTAK (Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey) for 2211-A PhD and Abdi İbrahim Foundation is also acknowledged for the biotechnology scholarship.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.