Green synthesis of different nanoparticles using the plants aqueous extracts has several advantages over other methods due to the environmentally favorable nature of plants. moreover, such approach is also cost effective. This work describes the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles (Ag-NPs) with the use of the aqueous extract of dry pericarps of hot chili peppers and cv. Carolina Reaper) with different levels of pungency and their antibacterial effect on the antibiotic resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Phytochemical screening of pericarp tissues showed great distinction in contents of phenolic compounds and capsaicinoids as potential reducing agents wich correlated with total antiradical activity as analyzed by reduction of DPPH radicals. The biosynthesized Ag-NPs were characterized by UV-vis spectrophotometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The average size of the nanoparticles in both samples was less than 25 nm. Іnitial concentration of both samples of Ag-NPs inhibited P. aeruginosa growth with equal efficiency.

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Silver nanoparticles are among the most widely used nanomaterials, used in medicine and industry. Although their practical application is promising, not much is currently known about the toxicity of silver nanosized particles. That's why our investigation was aimed to describe the effect of nanosilver on rat testicles, regarding age effects. We investigated influence of 10-15 nm particles on the testes of young, adult and old rats, represented by 1-, 6-and 24-month-old animals respectively. The colloidal solution of silver, stabilized by sodium polyphosphate, was injected intraperitoneally for 10 days. As a result, both endocrine and spermatogenic testicular function in adult and old animals were reduced. This was observed as reduction in seminiferous tubules' diameter and shrinkage of Sertoli and Leydig cells' nuclei. At the same time we abserved the decrease of Sertoli cells' nuclear cross-section only in young animals. To sum up, we showed that silver nanoparticles downregulate testicular functions in every age group, which must be taken into account in case of biomedical application of these structures.

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Metals are widely used in modern medicine: iron, copper, zinc, vanadium, titanium – all of them are vital for treatment of different diseases. Recently a new field of medical technology has emerged, which focuses on the biomedical application of metallic nanoparticles, with a particular interest in a gold and silver-based materials. These structures are already used for photothermal anticancer therapy, drug delivery, bioimaging, radiosensitizers and as drugs themselves. Despite the wide usage of nanoparticles, we still don’t know much about the toxicity of nanomaterials. Nanotoxicological studies are mainly carried out in vitro, but in vivo effects are still elusive. Hence, we focused on the reproductive toxicity of gold and silver nanosized particles. Spherical 10–15 nm gold and silver nanoparticles were synthesized through the reduction of sodium tetrachloroaurate (III) and silver nitrate respectively with ascorbic acid in the presence of sodium polyphosphate as a coating and stabilizing agent. Next, these particles were administered intraperitoneally to the young and adult animals (1- and 6-months old respectively) at 1 mg/kg dose for 10 days. As quantitative markers of functional activity, we used the diameter of epididymal tubules, height and the nuclear cross-section of epididymal epitheliocytes and relative volume of the prostatic epithelium. We showed that intraperitoneal administrations of nanogold to young animals caused no significant histological changes, although we found a decrease in the nuclear cross-sectional area of epididymal epitheliocytes. At the same time, nanogold caused more morphometric changes in adult animals. Similar results were obtained from the nanosilver groups. Silver nanoparticles caused an observable decrease of sperm quantity in the lumen of epididymal tubules with a simultaneous increase in the number of extraepididymal cells in young animals. Morphometric parameters of the epididymis and prostate also decreased. Administration of nanosilver to adult animals also downregulated the morpho-functional state of both organs, although no histological changes were found. We showed that both nanogold and nanosilver can cause adverse effects on the functional activity of the epididymis and prostate of rats. It is worth mentioning that silver nanoparticles were generally more toxic than the gold ones, which correlates with their known mechanism of cellular action. Although the exact mechanisms of gold and silver action require further study, our results are useful for practical usage of nanomaterials in biomedical and clinical practice.