Biogenic Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles with High Antimicrobial and Catalytic Activities using Sheng Di Huang (Rehmannia glutinosa)

Abstract

Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are widely sought after for a variety of biomedical and environmental applications due to their antimicrobial and catalytic properties. We present here a green and simple synthesis of AgNPs utilizing traditional Chinese medicinal herbs. The screening of 20 aqueous herb extracts shows that Sheng Di Huang (Rehmannia glutinosa) had the most promising potential in producing AgNPs of 30±6 nm, with narrow size distribution and high crystallinity. The antimicrobial activities of these AgNPs conducted on E. coli cells were found to be superior in comparison to poly(vinylpyrrolidone)‐capped AgNPs synthesized using common chemical method. Additionally, the AgNPs obtained possess excellent catalytic performance in the reduction of 4‐nitrophenol to 4‐aminophenol. We compared the phytochemical and FTIR spectral analyses of the herb extract before and after synthesis, in order to elucidate the phytochemicals responsible for the reduction of Ag+ ions and the capping of the AgNPs produced.

The Emerging Roles of Silver Nanoparticles to Target Viral Life Cycle and Detect Viral Pathogens

“…because of their relatively straightforward and economical production techniques, in addition to their inherent stability, catalytic efficiency, electrical conductivity, magnetic and optical polarizability and antimicrobial properties. [98,99] A few instances of AgNP mediated drug delivery to combat antiviral diseases (Figure 3), which ultimately enhances antiviral immune response (Figure 4) of the body to successfully counteract a viral infection, which is one of the scopes of our review, have been discussed below.…”

“…Silver nanoparticles are a favorable option in nanotherapeutic applications for the delivery of small molecules, peptides, oligonucleotides, vaccines, etc. because of their relatively straightforward and economical production techniques, in addition to their inherent stability, catalytic efficiency, electrical conductivity, magnetic and optical polarizability and antimicrobial properties [98,99] …”