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International Journal of Nanomaterials and Biostructures

Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved

ISSN 2277-3851
Original Article
SYNTHESIS OF SILVER NANOPARTICLE USING FRESH TOMATO
POMACE EXTRACT
Josephine Nirmala Many1, B. Radhika2 and T.Ganesan3
1,2

Department of Home Science, Bharathidasan Govt. College for Women, Pududcherry.

3
Department of Botany, Tagore Arts College, Puducherry
Received 16 February 2014; accepted 03 March 2014

Abstract
Tomato is one of the most popular vegetable, used as a salad, in food preparations like juice, soup, sauce, ketchup or puree.
Commercial processing of tomato in food industry produces a large amount of waste at various stages. Tomato waste is
also known as Tomato Pomace which is a mixture of tomato peels, crushed seeds, pulp, core culls and unprocessed green
tomatoes that remain after the processing of tomato. During processing 10 to 30% of the raw tomato weight becomes
waste. The wet pomace contained 33% seed, 27% skin, 40% pulp while the dried pomace contained 44% seed, 56% pulp
and skin. Tomato seeds, the major component of pomace, contained a good quantity of proteins and lipids. The skin,
another important component of pomace, was utilized for extracting the red pigment using organic solvent. Due to these
properties, tomato pomace is used for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles. Nanoparticles where characterized by UV-VIS
spectroscopy, Scainning electron microscopy (SEM), and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR). The
antibacterial activity against a panel of five bacterium was also investigated for nanoparticles.
2013 Universal Research Publications. All rights reserved
INTRODUCTION
Fresh tomato pomace is a residue, which is the main byproduct available after processing of tomato. The
processing of tomato yields nearly 50 percent of the fresh
tomato pomace. Fresh tomato pomace has high moisture
content spoils quickly and costly to transport. In order to
overcome this problem, eco-friendly, safe and reliable
method of utilizing the fresh tomato pomace was carried
out by synthesizing Silver Nanoparticles. Nanoparticle was
used which has several important applications in the field
of biolabelling, sensors, drug delivery system (Mann and
Ozin, 1996), filters and also possesses antimicrobial
activity (Ingle et al, 2008). It is well known that several
plant extract and many microorganisms like algae, bacteria
and fungi produce nanoparticle. But, the research on fruit
waste for the synthesis of nanoparticle was not observed.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
1. Preparation of Fresh Tomato Pomace Extract
Fresh Tomato Pomace that remains after extraction of juice
was used for the preparation of extract. 20g of fresh tomato
pomace was added into 100ml of deionised water and
boiled for 10 minutes. The content was cooled for few
minutes. It was then filtered using whatman filter paper
No.1 and filtrate was used for the synthesis of
Nanoparticle.

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2. Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticle from Tomato

Pomace
10ml of freshly prepared filtrate was added with 90ml of
aqeous solution of 1mM silver nitrate for reduction of
Ag+ions and incubated at room temperature and the colour
change was observed.
3. Characterization of Silver Nanoparticles
The characterization of silver nanoparticles was carried out
by different techniques such as SEM, UV-Vis and FTIR
analysis.
SEM Analysis
Electron microscopy is commonly used method of
characterization (Cao, 2004). It is used for morphological
characterization at the nanometer to micrometerscale
(Schaffer et al, 2009).
Sample of SEM was prepared by placing the drop of silver
nanoparticle suspension over carbon coated grid then it was
dried, examined and photographed in SEM (FEI*L 30) at
Instrumentation lab, Pondicherry University, Puducherry,
South India.
UV-Vis Spectrophotometer
The UV-Vis spectroscopy is another commonly used
technique (Pal et al., 2007). It is used for characterizing the
various metal nanoparticles in the size range of 2 to 100

International Journal of Nanomaterials and Biostructures 2014; 4(1): 12-15

Fig. 1: Synthesis of silver nanoparticle

A Initial (extract + silver nitrate solution)
B After 15 minutes of incubation
C After 1 hour of incubation
(B &C = Extract + silver nitrate solution)
nm. Spectrophotometric absorption measurements in the
wavelength ranges of 400-450 nm (Huang and Yang, 2004)
and 500-550 nm (Shankar et al., 2004) are used in
characterizing the silver and gold nanoparticles,
respectively.
The silver nanoparticle sample were subjected to optical
measurements, which were carried out by using a UV-Vis
spectrophotometer (U-2010 Spectrophotometer) and
scanning the spectra between 300 and 700 nm at the
resolution of 1 nm.
Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR)
FTIR spectroscopy is useful for characterizing the surface
chemistry (Chithrani et al., 2006). Organic functional
groups (eg. carbonyls, hydroxyls) attached to the surface of
nanoparticles and the other surface chemical residues are
detected using FTIR.
In FTIR analysis the samples were recorded in the range of
1000-4000cm-1 at a resolution of 4 cm-1.
Antibacterial activity of Silver Nanoparticles (Agar well
diffussion assay)
Agar well diffusion assay was used to evaluate the
antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticle against
B.subtilis, P.vulgaris, C.albicans, Pseudomonas, S.aureus
on PDA. 30l of sample was added in all the wells. These
plates were incubated for 24 hours to measure the zones of
inhibition. The assay was performed in triplicates.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
1. Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticle
The colour change was noted by virtual observation in
fresh tomato pomace extract incubated with aqeous
solution of silver nitrate. It started to change colour from
colourless to light brown and then brownish red colour due
to the reduction of Ag+ ions, this exhibit the formation of
silver nanoparticles. In the fig A represents the Initial, B &
C indicates that the reaction mixture after 15 minutes and
one hour of incubation. The intensity of colour increases
with increase in time and after one hour there is no
significant change in colour was observed due to the
completion of reaction.

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2. Characterization of Silver nanoparticles

Nanoparticles are generally characterized by their size,
shape, surface area and dispersity (Jiang et al, 2009). The
common techniques of characterizing nanoparticles are as
follows:
SEM
SEM was used to view the morphologhy and size of silver
nanoparticle. SEM image showed the high density
nanoparticle synthesized by fresh tomato pomace extract
were relatively spherical in shape. This confirmed the
development of silver nanostructures. The SEM image
showed the nanoparticle in the range of 70 -80 nm. This
size of particle confirms the presence of nanoparticle.

Fig. 2 : SEM image of Nanoparticle

UV-Vis Spectroscopy
UV-Vis Spectroscopy could be used to examine the size
and shape of controlled nanoparticle in aqeous suspension
(Wiley et al, 2006).
The confirmation of formation and stability of silver
nanoparticle was monitored by using UV-Vis spectral
analysis, for which after completion of reaction (after 1-2
hour) the sample were removed and subjected to UV-Vis
spectra measurement. The extract with silver nitrate
showed the sharp peak around 450 nm (Fig 3) with high
absorbance which is very specific of silver nanoparticles.
The broadening of the peak indicated that particle were
polydispersed

International Journal of Nanomaterials and Biostructures 2014; 4(1): 12-15

5000 and 10,000rpm. This is because, when the speed of

rotation increases, the size of Silver Nanoparticles
deposited becomes smaller and viceversa. If the size of
nanopartilces is smaller it shows the greater activity against
bacterial strain.
Silver nanoparticles synthesized utilizing fresh tomato
pomace extract showed higher antibacterial activity against
Shigella, Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus in all the
rotation. The other bacterial strain such as Vibrio chlorae
and Klebsiella showed minimum inhibitory effect.
Antimicrobial activity of silver nanoparticles has also
reported against Vibrio chlorae, Staphylococcus aureus and
Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Prabhu et al, 2010).
Table 1: Antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles
Zone of Inhibition (mm)
Bacteria

Fig. 3: Sample (peak was observed at 450 nm)

Fourier Transform Infra Red Spectroscopy (FTIR)
FTIR spectrum used to analyse the functional group present
in fresh tomato pomace extract. The Silver Nanoparticles
was confirmed by changes occurred in the FTIR spectrum
after synthesis. The fig showed the peaks between 1053
cm-1 to 3904 cm-1.
The peaks at 1458 cm-1, 1629.40 cm-1 and 1638 cm-1
shows the symmetric stretching vibration of COO (Shiv
Shankar et al, 2003), stretch vibration of C=C (Huang et al,
2007) and the reduction of silver ion to silver nanoparticles.
The peaks at 2344 cm-1, 2923 cm-1 and 3423 cm-1
represents the asymmetric stretching for C-H (Nune et al,
2009), stretching vibration of C-H and water & OH
absorption frequency (Wang et al, 2007).

Fig. 4: FTIR Spectrum

Antibacterial activity of Silver Nanoparticle
The reaction mixture were centrifuged at three different
speed ie., 5000, 10,000 and 15,000rpm and the particles
were collected. The collected Silver Nanoparticle were
three average size and it ranges as 250nm, 135nm and
80nm in 5000, 10,000 and 15,000 rpm respectively. These
particles were used in well about 50l were loaded in each
well and then antibacterial activity was tested.
The maximum zone of inhibition was observed at
15,000rpm for all the bacterial strain when compared to

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5000 rpm

10000rpm

15000 rpm

Shigella

16

19

25

Pseudomonas
aeruginosa

19

19

20

Staphylococcus
aureus

14

15

18

13

14

15

11

12

14

Klebsiella
pneumonia
Vibrio chlorae

CONCLUSIONS
Tomato Pomace is a byproduct in the Tomato processing
industry is capable of synthesizing Silver Nanoparticle. It
showed good antibacterial activity towards resistant
pathogens. Moreover, the process for the production of
Silver Nanoparticle is environmental friendly and free from
organic solvents and toxic chemicals. So, it is one of the
effective recycling process to utilize the tomato waste.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The author is grateful to the University Grants Commission
for providing necessary fund to carry out this research
work.
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Source of support: Nil; Conflict of interest: None declared

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International Journal of Nanomaterials and Biostructures 2014; 4(1): 12-15