Piper nigrum L.: silver nanoparticles

It was evaluated the chemical profile, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activity, in an unprecedented way, of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) synthesized from the essential oil nanoemulsion (NEO) of Piper nigrum. For essential oil extraction (EO), the hydrodistillation technique was used and the chemical constituents were identified by Gas Chromatography Coupled to Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS). The nanoemulsions were prepared using the phase inversion method and the synthesis of the AgNPs were performed by the Agno3 Ag reduction method using NEO. Antioxidant activity was evaluated using the abts radical discoloration method and anti-inflammatory activity by protein denaturation. The majority constituent of the EO was limonene (42.41%). The maximum spr band was centered at 420 nm indicating the characteristic peak of the AgNPs. The lowest IC50 16.26 mg L-1 for antioxidant activity was obtained for AgNP pH 11. The IC50 that demonstrated the best result for anti-inflammatory activity was pH 11 was 0.217 mg mL-1. This study brought in an unprecedented way results for AgNPs of P. nigrum, demonstrating to be efficient in improving the activities tested in this study.