GREEN SYNTHESIS OF SELENIUM NANOPARTICLES (SeNPs) USING AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF CLOVE AND CINNAMON

Background: Nanoparticles are being used to lower the toxicity and side effects that drugs may be imposed on the patient. Clove is one of the greatest valuable spices that have been used for centuries as food preservative and for many medicinal uses. This plant represents richest sources of phenolic compounds such as eugenol, eugenol acetate and gallic acid and possess great potential for pharmaceutical, cosmetic, food and agricultural applications. Cinnamon is one of the most important spices used daily by people all over the world. Cinnamon primarily contains vital oils and other derivatives, such as cinnamaldehyde, cinnamic acid and cinnamate.

Aim: To synthesize and characterize cinnamon and clove mediated selenium nanoparticles.

Materials and Methods: The selenium nanoparticles (SeNPs) were synthesized using clove and cinnamon extract and characterization was done by UV-Visible Spectroscopy and Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM).

Results: The results confirmed that the synthesized clove and cinnamon mediated nanoparticle was eco-friendly and non-toxic. The peak value has been centered at 355 nm, which has been mainly associated with absorbance of SeNPs. The TEM analysis images confirmed the formation of SeNPs by the leaf extract and clearly showed that they were mostly spherical and square in shape and the particles size was ranging from 40 to 90 nm.

Conclusion: In this study, a simple, biological and low-cost approach was done for the preparation of selenium nanoparticles using cinnamon and clove extract. Thus clove and cinnamon mediated selenium nanoparticles can be subjected to the various other biological activities such as antibacterial, antifungal, cytotoxic evaluation to know the efficiency of these nanoparticles.