Phytochemical Analysis and Chemical Characterization of Carica Papaya and Carica Papaya-Synthesized Magnesium Oxide Nanoparticles

Plants act as natural medicine from time immemorial. Natural medicines act as good substitutes and sometimes more potent substitutes to drugs especially antibiotics. The phytochemicals present in these plants are active compounds which help both in preventive and curative medicine. Carica papaya is a known fruit with health benefits. The leaves are no exception to its potency as a result of various phytochemicals present in it. Nanoparticles also show good promise in the fight against infectious diseases as they aid in drug delivery. However, biosynthesized nanoparticles show more promise as they are more effective, less-expensive and ecofriendly. This study shows the use of the leaves of Carica papaya in the synthesis of nanoparticles. The leaves of Carica papaya were extracted using methanol as a solvent. There was a percentage yield of 6.245%. The phytochemicals present in the leaves were evaluated both quantitatively and qualitatively. Alkaloids, tannins, flavonoids, steroids, terpenoids, saponnins and cardiac glycoside were present, while reducing sugar was absent. The quantitative evaluation of saponins, alkaloids, flavonoids, tannins show values of 7.8%, 3.6%, 3.4% and 4.3% respectively. The Carica papaya-synthesized magnesium oxide nanoparticles (MgONPs) were chemically evaluated with values of pH, absorption maxima, X-ray Flourescence Spectrometry (XRF), Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy (AAS), Fourier Transform Infrared (FTIR) and Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) put into consideration.