Silver nanoparticles (medicinal plants mediated) : A new generation of antimicrobials to combat microbial pathogens- a review

The major challenge the world is facing today is the mode of treatment of pathogenic bacteria which have become resistant to the existing antibiotics. Day by day, the resistance to existing antibiotics or drugs is increasing for one or other reasons. This increasing incidence of antibiotic resistance among the microbial organisms necessitates an alternate therapy to curb the resistant infectious microorganisms. A new approach to prevent or combat microbial pathogens is by the use of silver nanoparticles especially synthesized with the help of natural medicinal plants. Medicinal plants are already known for many therapeutic values and have been used since ages for curing many diseases and disorders including infectious diseases. This is because of the phytoconstituents present in them. The phytoconstituents or secondary metabolites present in them can be used for synthesizing silver nanoparticles. The synthesis of silver nanoparticles by means of using aqueous extracts of medicinal plants is simple, efficient, eco friendly, inexpensive, safe and it does not require any sophisticated instrumentation. Any part of the plant like leaf, root, stem, peel or fruit can be utilized for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles. The synthesized silver nanoparticles can be used individually or used in combination therapy or synergistic therapy. The synthesized silver nanoparticles are generally characterized by UV-vis spectroscopy, Scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Transmission electron microscopy (TEM), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), Zeta potential, X-ray diffraction (XRD), etc. The present review describes some of the most promising plants by the help of which silver nanoparticles have been synthesized which can be used as new novel source of antimicrobics to combat multiple drug resistant tough microorganisms.