Fungal mediated synthesis of silver nanoparticles and evaluation of antibacterial activity

Nanoparticles as biomedicine has made a crucial role in health biotechnology. Different transition metals in various forms playing role in nanotechnological advances and biological applications. Silver as one of the nontoxic, safe inorganic antibacterial agents and can serve as replacement of antibiotics. Present research is based on biogenic synthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) as potential antibiotics from fungal metabolites of Penicillium oxalicum. We used different analytical techniques X-ray diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for characterization of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles. Furthermore, the antibacterial activity of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles was checked against Staphylococcus aureus, S. dysenteriae, and Salmonella typhi by using well diffusion method and UV visible spectrophotometer. Maximum zone of inhibition recorded against S. aureus, Shigella dysenteriae was 17.5 +/- 0.5 mm (mm) for both species and 18.3 +/- 0.60 mm for Salmonella typhi. The biosynthesized silver nanoparticles of P. oxalicum showed excellent antibacterial activity. It was concluded from our results that biosynthesized silver nanoparticles have significant potential and might be useful for a wide range of biological applications such as bactericidal agent against resistant bacteria, preventing infections, healing wounds, and anti-inflammation.