Biosynthesis and Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles Mediated by Seed Extract of Macassar Ebony with Catalytic and Antimicrobial Activity

This paper presents a pioneering investigation of synthesizing Ag-NPs using Macassar Ebony seed (MES) extract. The bioactive metabolites in the MES extract were essential in reducing silver (Ag) ions, forming MES-Ag-NPs. The biosynthesized MES-Ag-NPs were characterized using several techniques, including UV–visible, DLS, XRD, FT-IR, and TEM. The MES-Ag-NPs have a zeta potential of − 33.9 mV, which defines their stability. The XRD diffractogram exhibited peaks at 2θ values of 38.07°, 44.27°, 64.62°, and 77.57°, which correspond to the (111), (200), (220), and (311) crystallographic planes of cubic Ag crystal, respectively. The TEM image revealed that the MES-Ag-NPs exhibited multi-shapes and had an average size of 48.76 nm. When used as catalysts to degrade methylene blue (MB), MES-Ag-NPs demonstrated a degradation efficiency of more than 80% in just 10 min. Besides, the MES-Ag-NPs had a ZOI of 10.83 ± 1.17 mm against Staphylococcus aureus and 10.67 ± 1.19 mm against Escherichia coli, which shows that they might be helpful as an antibacterial agent. The findings of this study shed light on the potential advantages that MES-based Ag-NPs may bring to the medical and environmental remediation fields.