BIOSYNTHESIS OF SILVER NANO PARTICLES AND ITS ANTIBACTERIAL ACTIVITY AGAINST HUMAN PATHOGENS

Research on nanoparticles is currently an area of intense scientific research, due to a wide variety of potential applications in biomedical, optical, and electronic fields. Synthesis of nanoparticles can be carried out by using various chemical and physical methods. But use of such methods is harmful in one or the other way as the chemicals often used are toxic, flammable, not easily disposable due to environmental issues, having low production rate, etc. As a result, a great deal of effort has been put into the search for methods utilizing biological systems, such as the microorganisms and plants, for the synthesis of metal nanoparticles. Such biologically synthesized silver nanoparticles from Apocynaceae members were evaluated against the human pathogens. The plant based silver nano particles synthesized from Rauvolfia tetraphylla was found to be most active against Shigella dysenteriae with the highest zone of inhibition.