Screening of Medicinal Plants for Effective Biogenesis of Silver Nano Particles and Efficient Anti-microbial Activity

Metal nanoparticles have been using as an ingredients in the preparation of complementary medicines to cure different diseases is an age old medicinal practices. The plant based Ayurvedic preparations are preferred by 80% of the world population and WHO is encouraging the green medicine due to its less side effects. Hence an attempt has been made to screen this important medicinal plant for secondary metabolites biogenesis of silver nanoparticles (SNPs) and their antimicrobial efficacy. The stem, roots, stembark and leaves were selected for synthesis of SNPs. The SNPs formation was confirmed with the help of UV-VIS spectroscopy and characterized by AFM. The phytosynthesized SNPs were tested for antibacterial and antifungal activities using paper disc diffusion method. The results indicate that the selected plant revealed that it is source for different secondary metabolites like anthocyanins, emodins, triterpenoids, tannins, saponins, luecoanthocyanins, reducing sugars, flavonoids, lignins, anthroquniones, phenols and glycosides. But steroids, coumarins, fatty acids and alkaloids are absent. The SNPs are having more anti microbial efficacy than that of the plant extracts. Moreover the SNPs of selected plant parts are having toxicity towards bacterial species than that of fungal species. It is concluded that the environmentally benign SNPs synthesized from different parts of Shorea tumbuggaia can be used effectively against bacterial and fungal strains. The SNPs may have important advantage over conventional antibiotics to which the bacteria got resistance. INTRODUCTION: Recently the researchers from Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay have discovered that the age old complementary medicines of Homeopathic pills and Ayurvedic Bhasmas are having metal nanoparticles such as gold, silver, copper, platinum, tin and iron . Nano-particles have found widespread use for biological assays. These have substantial advantages over classical organic dyes because of their superior photo physical properties, which overcome many of the spectral limitations as molecular fluorophones . The silver nanoparticles have various and important applications. Historically, silver has been known to have a disinfecting effect and has been found in applications ranging from traditional medicines to culinary items. It has been reported that silver nanoparticles (SNPs) are non-toxic to humans and most effective against bacteria, virus and other eukaryotic microorganisms at low concentrations and without any side effects . Moreover, several salts of Correspondence to Author: