Ecofriendly Green Synthesis and Characterisation of Silver Nanoparticles of Hyoscyamus Niger Seeds and Evaluation of its Anthelmintic Activity

Introduction: Nanotechnology is the design, characterisation and production of molecules or structures at nanometer scale. Metallic nanoparticles have been known for their therapeutic applications for thousands of years. Hyoscyamus niger is a traditional plant used as analgesic, sedative, anthelmintic, antitumour and febrifuge. Objective: An eco-friendly approach was made for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles using aqueos seed extract of Hyoscyamus niger (H.n-AgNPs) and checked for possible anthelmintic activity. Method: Preparation of silver nanoparticles in 1 mM aqueous silver nitrate from Hyoscyamus niger seed. The color shift from yellow to brownish red provided visible evidence of nanoparticle production. UV visible, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), and X-ray diffraction (XRD) examinations all validated it further. We tested the in vitro anthelmintic activity of various doses of H.n-AgNPs on Indian earthworms.. Results: The size of the H.n-AgNPs synthesized ranged between 8nm to183 nm. Synthesized NPs showed potential anthelmintic activity at 100µg/mlwith paralysis time and death time of 15 min and 34 min respectively where Albendazole was used as standard drug. The phytoconstituents like tannins and phenolic compounds may be responsible for precipitation of proteins or can attach with free proteins in gastrointestinal tract or glycoprotein on parasite cuticle and cause cell death.  Conclusion: The H.n-AgNPs synthesized have potential anthelmintic activity which was concentration dependent. Further research will be done to design a new anthelmintic drug using H.n-AgNPs.