Plant Extract (Bupleurum falcatum) as a Green Factory for Biofabrication of Gold Nanoparticles

This work describes a biofabrication process for gold nanoparticles in which the plant extract (Bupleurum falcatum) is used as a reducing agent to convert gold ions to gold nanoparticles. Biofabricated gold nanoparticles with spherical shapes were observed with an average diameter of 10.5 ± 2.3 nm. The color of the gold nanoparticles was purple, with a surface plasmon resonance peak at 542 nm. The face-centered cubic structure of crystalline gold was confirmed by high-resolution X-ray diffraction patterns. The biofabricated gold nanoparticles demonstrated excellent catalytic activity towards the 4-nitrophenol reduction reaction. The current report suggests that plant extracts are valuable natural sources for the biofabrication of gold nanoparticles with excellent catalytic activities.