Snehanjana Patra, Snigdha Ghosh, Ahiri Chakraborty, Sarmistha Ray
Sheath blight disease in rice is of major concern as it has led to a decrease in the rice crop yield worldwide. Therefore, to combat this particular fungal pathogen using a sustainable alternative, nanomaterials have come into play. This study reports the usage of green chemistry for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles using silver nitrate as the precursor agent and Syzygium aromaticum (clove) extract as the reducing agent and surfactant. The evaluation of the in-vitro antifungal activity was performed on Rhizoctonia solani using various concentrations of silver nanoparticles. Several methods like UV-Vis Spectroscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy, were employed for characterization purposes. The Scanning Electron micrograph showed that nanoparticles were roughly spherical. The clove silver nanoparticles were highly effective in inhibiting the growth of the pathogen as observed and based on the obtained results, the clove nanoparticles can be investigated further as a probable replacement for synthetic fungicides.