Abstract

• Ocimum sanctum L. (holy basil) leaves were collected from Hpa-an Township, Kayin State and verified its botanical name at Department of Botany, Hpa-an University. The isolation of eugenol from holy basil (Kalar-pin-sein) leaves was carried out by distillation method, followed by adding NaCl (to separate aqueous layer and organic layer), NaOH (to form sodium ion in place of H+ of its hydroxyl group), acidified by HCl (protonating eugenoate moiety that gives eugenol), adding Na2SO4 (to dehydrate at all) and separated by adding hexane to give mostly pure eugenol. The characterization of extracted eugenol was studied by TLC, UV, FT IR and GC-MS methods. The Rf value was found at 0.56 (hexane : acetone, 9:1 v/v) and it was UV active. The wavelength of maximum absorption was found to be 285 nm. It was soluble in petroleum ether, ethyl acetate, chloroform, methanol and ethanol but insoluble in water. This was also confirmed by the broad O-H stretching band at 3520 cm-1 and aromatic C-O stretching bands between 1200-1270 cm-1 in FT IR spectrum. GC-MS identified the prepared sample as eugenol definitely with strong molecular ion peak at m/z 164 accompanied by diagnostic fragment peaks which are identical with the reported spectrum. Synthesis of silver nanoparticles by extracted eugenol (AgNPE) and characterization in association of average and single crystallite sizes calculation by X-ray diffraction were also studied. A cost effective and environmental friendly method has been carried out for green synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPE) from different volumes (8 and 10 mL) of silver nitrate solution (1.0 mM) as metal precursor. From indexing XRD patterns, it could be confirmed that the optimal synthesized AgNPE-8 and AgNPE-10 had face-centered cubic (FCC) crystal system because of the indices with all odd or all even numbers. It was observed that the average crystallite sizes of AgNPE-8 and AgNPE-10 were respectively by found to be 42.03 nm and 34.93 nm according to Scherrer formula. From the results, it could be deduced that the prepared AgNPE had the properties of nanoparticles.