Mycosynthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using the Fungus Fusarium acuminatum and its Activity Against Some Human Pathogenic Bacteria

Abstract

We report extracellular mycosynthesis of silver nanoparticles by Fusarium acuminatum Ell. and Ev. (USM-3793) isolated from infected ginger (Zingiber officinale). An aqueous silver nitrate solution was reduced to metallic silver when exposed to F. acuminatum cell extract leading to the appearance of a brown color within 15-20 minutes. The color is due to the formation of silver nanoparticles and the excitation of surface plasmons. The optical spectrum showed the plasmon resonance at 420 nm and analysis by transmission electron microscopy confirmed the presence of silver nanoparticles. The nanoparticles produced were spherical with a broad size distribution in the range of 5-40 nm with average diameter of 13 nm. The reduction of the silver ions occurs probably by a nitrate-dependent reductase enzyme, which we found to be present in the extra-cellular medium. We tested the silver particles for their broad-band antibacterial activity on different human pathogens. We observed efficient antibacterial activity against multidrug resistant and highly pathogenic bacteria, including multidrug resistant Staphylococcus aureus, Salmonella typhi, Staphylococcus epidermidis, and Escherichia coli. The synthesis of silver nanoparticles by the fungus F. acuminatum may therefore serve as a simple, cheap, eco-friendly, reliable and safe method to produce an antimicrobial material.

Silver Nanoparticles

“…The biggest advantage of this protocol based on purified enzyme was the development of a new approach for green synthesis of nanomaterials over a range of chemical compositions and shapes without possible aggregation. Ingle et al (Ingle et al 2008) demonstrated the potential ability of Fusarium acuminatum Ell. and Ev.…”

Extracellular synthesis of silver nanoparticles using dried leaves of pongamia pinnata (L) pierre

“…Filamentous fungi on the other hand are capable of synthesizing the silver nanoparticles extracellularly but the downstream processing and the biomass handling make them difficult [10][11][12].…”

Nanotechnology Tools for Efficient Antibacterial Delivery to Salmonella

“…In fact, a number of different species of bacteria and fungi are able to reduce metal ions producing metallic nanoparticles with antimicrobial properties. Recently, it has been shown that silver nanoparticles produced by the fungus F. acuminatum have efficient antibacterial activity against multidrug resistant and highly pathogenic, Salmonella typhi (109). Additionally, plant extracts can also be used to obtain metallic nanoparticles (110).…”

“…Silver nanoparticles Salmonella typhi (141) Silver nanoparticles Salmonella typhimurium (142) Silver bionanoparticles Salmonella typhi (143) Silver bionanoparticles Salmonella paratyphi (144) TiO2 nanoparticles Salmonella typhimurium (145) ZnO nanoparticles Salmonella typhimurium (145) Silver nanoparticles Salmonella typhus (146) Iron nanoparticles Salmonella paratyphi (147) silver nanoparticles Not specified (148) Silver Nanoparticles Salmonella typhimurium (149) Silver bionanoparticles Salmonella typhi (150) Ag-SiO2 anoparticles Salmonella typhimurium…”