Seasonal variation’s effect on antidiabetic activity of silver nanoparticles

The present work develops an eco-friendly protocol that was adopted to synthesize silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from the aqueous extract of Corchorus depressus collected in three different seasons. Visually, the formation of AgNPs was confirmed by the change in the color of extracts to reddish brown and the AgNPs were further characterized by ultraviolet–visible studies of the absorption band at 435–450 nm that is due to surface plasmon resonance of AgNPs. The functional groups that behave as a reducing agent and those that act as a capping agent were determined by the FTIR. The particle size was determined by scanning electron microscopy and the amount of capping agents (organic contents at the surface of AgNPs) was estimated by thermogravimetric analysis. AgNPs showed a remarkable inhibitory activity against α-glucosidase compared to their respective aqueous extracts. Extraction of plant material collected in the month of January and their AgNP formation showed the smallest particle size of 4 ± 2 nm. Moreover, an augmented remarkable inhibitory activity against the carbohydrate-digesting enzyme α-glucosidase with IC₅₀ of 2·48 ± 0·56 μg/ml was also observed compared to other extracts.