There is an increasing commercial demand for nanoparticles due to their wide applicability
in various areas such as electronics, catalysis, chemistry, energy, and medicine. Metallic
nanoparticles are traditionally synthesized by wet chemical techniques, where the
chemicals used are quite often toxic and flammable. In this work, we describe a cost
effective and environment friendly technique for green synthesis of silver nanoparticles
from 5mM AgNO3 solution through the extract of Argemone maxicana leaf extract as
reducing agent as well as capping agent. Nanoparticles were characterized using UV–Vis
absorption spectroscopy, FTIR, XRD and SEM. X-ray diffraction and SEM analysis
showed the average particle size of 30 nm as well as revealed their structure. Further these
biologically synthesized nanoparticles were found to be highly toxic against different
bacterial spp. The most important outcome of this work will be the development of valueadded
products from Argemone maxicana (a potential weed of India) for biomedical and
nanotechnology based industries. This is for the first time that Argemone maxicana weed
leaf extract was used for the synthesis of nanoparticles.