**Abstract**

The biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) has become more significant in the recent years owing to its applications in catalysis, imaging, drug delivery, nanodevice fabrication and in medicine. We propose the synthesis of silver nanoparticles from the plant extract of *Syzygium cumini* and evaluation of its antibacterial and chemocatalytic potential. Synthesis of AgNPs carried out by using aqueous silver nitrate. The UV–Vis absorption spectrum of the synthesized AgNPs showed a broad absorption peak at 470 nm. TEM analysis shows the morphology of AgNPs as a hexagonal matrix with average particle size is about 50 nm. XRD analysis displays the crystalline structure of AgNPs. The presence of elemental silver was confirmed with EDX analysis. FTIR analysis shows that amide groups present in proteins are dominant reducing agents and play an important role in the bioreduction of Ag+ ions to Ag0 . The bioreduced AgNPs demonstrated significant catalytic properties in a reduction reaction of 4-nitrophenol to 4-aminophenol using NaBH4 in an aqueous condition. The biosynthesized AgNPs have potent antibacterial activity against common clinical pathogens. Considering the remarkable antibacterial activity against common pathogenic microorganisms, AgNPs can be used in the pharmaceutical industries.

**Keywords:** *Syzygium cumini*, Silver nanoparticles, Antibacterial activity, Catalytic reduction
