Optical and electrochemical properties of herbal materials

Abstract

Medicinal plants, also called as Indian Ayurveda has many health benefits. Other than the medicinal benefits they are also believed to show applications like luminescence, electronic properties etc. We studied the Optical and Electrochemical properties of some natural materials. The characterization techniques used are UV-Vis spectroscopy, Photo Luminescence (PL) spectroscopy and Cyclic Voltammetry (CV). Most of the natural material are good UV absorber and are found to show good luminescence. Aparajita, Paras Pipal, Neem, Henna shows red luminescence; Turmeric shows green luminescence; Beetroot, Carrot, Pomegranate shows blue luminescence. They are good antioxidants due to their reducing properties. Also, we mixed Turmeric and Henna in equal proportion to obtain yellow light from blue/UV LED. UV LED shows yellow and orangish color under the extract while, BLUE LED shows only yellow color. The difference seen in two LED glow is explained on the basis of PL curve.