INDIAN SCIENCE CONGRESS - India Environment Portal

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Proc. 98th Indian Science Congress, Part II : Platinum Jubilee Lecture
out the range of biotransformations listed above but also control the shape of
nanoparticles. We have studied a number of plant extracts for realizing metal
nanoparticles and have observed that the Geranium and Lemongrass extracts result
in shape modulated gold nanoparticles. In particular, the reaction of aqueous gold
ions with Lemongrass extract resulted in the large-scale synthesis of gold nanotriangles
with interesting near infrared absorption. Potential application of the gold nanotriangles
in hyperthermia of cancer cells and infrared absorbing glasses/polymers are being
investigated.
We have also isolated, purified and completely characterized a range of plant
based drugs such as Taxol from endophytic fungi and recently initiated further
important steps of functionalizing the nanoparticles synthesized by green chemistry
approach for targeted drug delivery application.