Plant mediated green synthesis of silver nanoparticles for antimicrobial application: Present status

Department of Chemical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Raipur, Raipur-492 010, Chhattisgarh, India E-mail: dhrutisundar23@gmail.com, dpsingh.che@nitrr.ac.in Manuscript received online 15 April 2020, accepted 12 June 2020 Nanotechnology is a multidisciplinary research area owing to its various applications in medicine, pharmacy, science, engineering etc. Current research focus is in the field of green nanotechnology as it is environmentally and biologically safer. Numerous methods were used for synthesis of noble metal nanoparticles includes physical, chemical and biological methods. The conventional; chemical reduction method is not an environmentally friendly approach. Since, chemical synthesis involves various hazardous chemicals consequently; it imparts an adverse effect to living organism and on environment at later stage due to toxicity. Therefore, in last few decades’ research have been focused for synthesis of metal nanoparticles using the non-toxic, clean and green methods. The green synthesis methods are simple, single step and eco-friendly in nature. In these methods some biological agent i.e. bacteria, fungus, plant etc. are used as reducing agent for synthesizing metal nanoparticles. Nevertheless, plant assisted synthesis method is the best strategy over other conventional method for noble metal nanoparticle synthesis. A range of metal like Ag, Au, Pt, Cd, Fe, etc. is being utilised for the synthesizing nanoparticles by plant extract. Among them silver nanoparticle (AgNPs) has got a special attention due to its excellent properties for dynamic applications. This review provides a brief overview about current status of the latest synthesis strategies for AgNPs using plant extract and highlights the antimicrobial applications of these nanoparticles. The synthesized AgNPs are found mostly spherical shape and have size ranging 1–100 nm. Further, the phyto-synthesized AgNPs were tested for wide range of antimicrobial action and shown major inhibitory effect against both Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria