Fig 1.
Schematic outline of the work conducted in this study.
FTIR: Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy, GC-MS: Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry, XRD: X-ray Diffraction, EDX: Energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, TEM: Transmission Electron Microscopy, SEM: Scanning Electron Microscopy, UV-Vis: Ultraviolet-Visible spectrophotometry, Carb: Carbohydrates, TPC: Total Phenolic Content.
Fig 2.
Schematic outline of the pot cultivation.
Physical and chemical characteristics of the soil used in this study as well as the procedure used for Chlorophyll extraction and estimation of chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll contents were previously reported by Essa et al. [20].
Table 1.
Identified contents of the crude extract (CE) as measured using metabolite profiling on GC/MS.
Fig 3.
UV-Vis spectra of the biogenic and commercial Cu NPs (a), together with the FTIR spectra of the CE, biogenic and commercial Cu NPs (b).
Fig 4.
TEM image (a), XRD pattern (b), SEM image (c), EDX analysis (d) and of the biogenic Cu NPs.
Fig 5.
Root (a) and shoot lengths (b) of the germinated wheat seeds after their incubation in CE, biogenic and commercial Cu NPs.
Fig 6.
Effect of CE, biogenic and commercial Cu NPs on % relative growth of root (a) and shoot lengths (b) and germination index of wheat seeds (c).
Fig 7.
Effect of CE and Cu NPs on CAT (a), POX (b), PPO (c) and AAO (d) activities in wheat germinated seeds (μg/g fresh wt min-1) at the 4th day of germination.
Fig 8.
Cu uptake in wheat seedlings (a) and Translocation factor of wheat seedlings (b).
Fig 9.
Chlorophyll a, b and total chlorophyll contents upon exposure to CE and Cu NPs.