Toxicology evaluation and antidermatophytic activity of silver nanoparticles synthesized using leaf extract of Passiflora caerulea

Microscopic Characterization Based Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using Merremia quinquefolia (L.) Hallier f. Leaf Extract: Their Biological Approaches and Degradation of Methylene Blue Dye

The green methods for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) has developed popularity recently due to the low preparation costs, environmental friendliness, and non-toxicity of the precursors. In this study, AgNPs were synthesized using leaf extract from Merremia quinquefolia. Spectroscopic techniques were used for analyzing the functional groups, morphology, crystalline phase, and elemental composition of nanomaterials. The ultraviolet (UV) visible spectrometry absorption spectra of the AgNPs had a surface plasmon resonance band at 459 nm and Fourier transformed infrared spectrum (FTIR) analysis showed the presence of elements groups. X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis indicates the crystalline structure and the energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDAX) analysis shows strong signals for the silver element. Morphological analysis using transmission electron microscope (TEM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) analyses revealed that the AgNPs exhibited spherical shapes with an average size of 14 nm. Furthermore, it was indicated by the Raman spectra vibrational peak at 240 and 470 cm-1. The disk diffusion method showed that AgNPs were highly effective in inhibition of Gram-positive bacteria Staphylococcus aureus with a high inhibitory zone (14 ± 0.23 mm). Antioxidant activity, the IC50 values for assays DPPH (145.7 μg/mL) and ABTS (112.09 μg/mL), and albumin denaturation in human red blood cells showed higher anti-inflammatory activity. AgNPs had an IC50 value of 4.62 μg/mL against breast cancer (MCF-7) cells. Methylene blue (MB) degrading studies were used to assess the photocatalytic activity of AgNPs. They are at 240 min observed sunlight, the MB degradation efficiency was 94.89%. Overall, although M. quinquefolia synthesizes AgNPs for environmentally friendly applications, the study is indicated to fully understand the potential involved in treating breast cancer cells.

Biogenic Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles, Characterization and Their Applications—A Review

With the growing awareness for the need of sustainable environment, the importance of synthesizing and the application of green nanoparticles has gained special focus. Among various metal nanoparticles, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) have gain significant attention. AgNPs are synthesized conventionally by physical and chemical methods using chemicals such as reducing agents, which are hazardous to environment due to their toxic properties, provoking a serious concern to create and develop environment friendly methods. Thus, biological alternatives are emerging to fill gaps, such as green syntheses that use biological molecules taken from plant sources in the form of extracts, which have shown to be superior to chemical and physical approaches. These biological molecules derived from plants are assembled in a highly regulated manner to make them suitable for metal nanoparticle synthesis. The current review outlines the wide plant diversity that may be used to prepare a rapid and single-step procedure with a green path over the traditional ones, as well as their antifungal activity.

In Vitro Antifungal Activity of Green Synthesized Silver Nanoparticles in Comparison to Conventional Antifungal Drugs Against Trichophyton Interdigitale, Trichophyton Rubrum and Epidermophyton Floccosum

BACKGROUND

Dermatophytosis is a globally distributed fungal infection. Treatment failure and relapse is common in this disease. Silver nanoparticles are known for their promising antimicrobial activity. The aim of this study was to determine the antifungal activity of these nanoparticles against common dermatophyte species.

METHODS

A set of 30 molecularly identified dermatophytes including Trichophyton interdigitale (n=10), Trichophyton rubrum (n=10), and Epidermophyton floccosum (n=10) were used in this study. Green synthesized silver nanoparticles using chicory (Cichorium intybus) were tested for their antifungal activity in comparison to fluconazole, itraconazole and terbinafine. Interspecies differences in minimum inhibitory concentrations of antifungal drugs and silver nanoparticles were tested using Kruskal-Wallis test in SPSS software version 21.

RESULTS

The highest minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) among antifungal drugs were observed for fluconazole [range: 4-64 μg/mL, geometric mean (GM) =17.959 μg/mL], followed by itraconazole (range: 0.008-0.5, GM= 0.066) and terbinafine (range: 0.004-0.25 μg/mL, GM=0.027 μg/mL). Silver nanoparticles showed potent antifungal activity against all dermatophyte isolates with MICs (range: 0.25-32 μg/mL, GM=4.812 μg/mL) higher than those of itraconazole and terbinafine, but lower than fluconazole. MIC values of silver nanoparticles demonstrated significant differences between species (P=0.044), with E. floccosum having the highest MICs (GM=9.849 μg/mL) compared to T. interdigitale (GM=3.732 μg/mL) and T. rubrum (GM=3.031 μg/mL).

CONCLUSION

Silver nanoparticles demonstrated promising anti-dermatophyte activity against the studied dermatophytes. Due to their wide-spectrum activity against other fungal and bacterial pathogens, they could be a potential choice, at least in the case of cutaneous and superficial infections.

Zebrafish as a Successful Animal Model for Screening Toxicity of Medicinal Plants

The zebrafish (Danio rerio) is used as an embryonic and larval model to perform in vitro experiments and developmental toxicity studies. Zebrafish may be used to determine the toxicity of samples in early screening assays, often in a high-throughput manner. The zebrafish embryotoxicity model is at the leading edge of toxicology research due to the short time required for analyses, transparency of embryos, short life cycle, high fertility, and genetic data similarity. Zebrafish toxicity studies range from assessing the toxicity of bioactive compounds or crude extracts from plants to determining the optimal process. Most of the studied extracts were polar, such as ethanol, methanol, and aqueous solutions, which were used to detect the toxicity and bioactivity. This review examines the latest research using zebrafish as a study model and highlights its power as a tool for detecting toxicity of medicinal plants and its effectiveness at enhancing the understanding of new drug generation. The goal of this review was to develop a link to ethnopharmacological zebrafish studies that can be used by other researchers to conduct future research.