Clerodendrum Inerme

This paper describes the first report on the synthesis of silver nanoparticles using extracts of a medicinal leaf Clerodendrum Inerme. Nanoparticles were synthesized from three different leaf conditions – fresh leaves, sun-dried leaves, and hot-air oven dried leaves. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis of the nanoparticles revealed differences in sizes for the nanoparticles synthesized from different leaf conditions. Nanoparticles synthesized using fresh leaves possessed the smallest sizes. It is anticipated that optimization of the current synthesis method would yield highly mono-dispersed silver nanoparticles that have great potential in treating skin ailments.

The genus Clerodendrum L. (Family: Lamiaceae) is very widely distributed in tropical and subtropical regions of the world. More than five hundred species of the genus are identified till now, which includes small trees, shrubs and herbs. Ethno-medical importance of various species of Clerodendrum genus has been reported in various indigenous systems of medicines and as folk medicines. The genus is being used as medicines specifically in Indian, Chinese, Thai, Korean, Japanese systems of medicine for the treatment of various life threatening diseases such as syphilis, typhoid, cancer, jaundice and hypertension. Along with biological studies, isolation and identification studies of chemical constituents and its correlation with the biological activities of the genus has also been studied. The major chemical components reported from the genus are phenolic, steroids, di- and triterpenes, flavonoids, volatile oils, etc.