ORIENTAL JOURNAL OF CHEMISTRY www.orientjchem.org An International Open Free Access, Peer Reviewed Research Journal ISSN: 0970-020 X CODEN: OJCHEG 2018, Vol. 34, No.(5): Pg. 2583-2589 This is an Open Access article licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/), which permits unrestricted Non Commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Green Synthesis and Characterization of Iron Oxide Nanoparticles Using Phyllanthus Niruri Extract VIJU KUMAR V G 1 * and ANANTHU A PREM 2 Department of Chemistry, University College, Trivandrum-695034, India. *Corresponding author E-mail: vgviju@gmail.com http://dx.doi.org/10.13005/ojc/340547 (Received: June 06, 2018; Accepted: October 02, 2018) ABSTRACT Studies on green synthesis of nanoparticles moves forward a lot on these days. The present work involves the green method of synthesizing iron oxide nanoparticle from Phyllanthus niruri leaf extract. Furthermore, the green synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles were characterized and its antimicrobial activity was investigated. A characteristic comparison with chemical method of synthesis is also done, for iron nanoparticles. The characterization of nanoparticle includes the IR, UV-Vis, surface morphology and size determination using TEM, SEM, and XRD. The analytical studies revealed that the synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles from these two different methods have almost identical size and morphology. The synthesized iron oxide nanoparticles showed significant antimicrobial activity against the microbes, E. coli and P. aeroginosa. The studies concluded that the synthesis of iron oxide nanoparticles using plant extracts is more beneficial as it is an economical, energy efficient, low cost and environment-friendly process than the bio hazardous chemical synthesis. The present investigation may be a definite contribution to green chemistry in general and nano synthesis in particular. Keywords: Green synthesis, Iron oxide nanoparticle, Phyllanthus niruri, Agar- well diffusion method. INTRODUCTION In a broad sense, the term biosynthesis includes a wide range of possible applications from nanotechnology enabled, environmentally friendly manufacturing processes that reduce waste products; the use of nanomaterials as catalysts for greater efficiency of current manufacturing processes by minimizing or eliminating the use of toxic materials 1 ; the use of nanomaterials and nanodevices to reduce pollution; and the use of nanomaterials for more efficient alternative energy production. Biosynthesis of nanoparticles is a kind of bottom-up approach where the main reaction occurring is reduction or oxidation. The important reducing agents like citric acid, ascorbic acid, flavonoids, reductases, dehydrogenases and extracellular electron shuttlers present in microbial enzymes and plant extracts, play an important role in biosynthesis of metal nanoparticles 2 . They play important roles in both stabilization and reduction of nanoparticles. Green synthesis provides advantages