Biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles using fungus Penicillium brevicompactum and evaluation of their anti-bacterial activity against some human pathogens

Nanoparticles synthesis with biological material is extremely appealing for a variety of commercial, scientific and health applications. The current study reports biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) with Penicillium brevicompactum. Ag-NPs were rapidly synthesized and their characterizations were done by different analytical techniques like UV- Vis spectra, TEM, SEM-EDAX, FTIR and XRD. UV-visible spectra of Ag-NPs showed an absorption peak at 420 nm for silver corresponding to the surface plasmon resonance of silver. The TEM and SEM-EDAX studies revealed the formation of mono-dispersed spherical metallic silver nanoparticles with size ranging from 6.28 - 15.12 +/- 0.8 nm while FTIR spectroscopy confirmed the presence of extracellular proteins on surface, their XRD spectrum confirmed the formation of metallic silver nanoparticles. We also examined antibacterial assay of silver nanoparticles against clinically isolated human pathogens: Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli and the results obtained showed potential of Ag-NPs as antibacterial agents in the field of medical sciences.