SYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION AND ITS IN VITRO ANTIOXIDANT, ANTIBACTERIAL AND ANTIDIABETIC ACTIVITIES OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES OF CURCUMA LONGA LEAVES

Turmeric, a medicinal plant known by the scientific name Curcuma longa has various medicinal properties. India being the largest producer of turmeric exports a large quantity of turmeric all over the world because of its usefulness in medicine, cooking, and even in beauty products. The rhizome is considered as the useful part of the turmeric plant and the stem and leaves of the plant are always considered as waste and are disposed. The waste disposed from the plant is higher than the amount of turmeric rhizome produced. As the rhizome has useful medicinal properties like antioxidant, antimicrobial , anti-inflammatory, antidiabetic activities it is more in demand than its production. Hence, the Curcuma longa leaves which is considered as the waste product were selected to experimentally test its useful medicinal properties by synthesizing silver nanoparticles from the extract obtained from the plant leaves. Silver, an ancient metal used for its significant antibacterial property can be synthesized from plant extract as silver nanoparticles by using biological method. The properties like antioxidant, antibacterial and antidiabetic activities of the silver nanoparticles synthesized from turmeric leaf extract were tested and discussed from the result obtained.