Current developments in green synthesis of metallic nanoparticles using plant extracts: a review

Abstract

Metal nanoparticles (MNPs) produced by green approaches have received global attention because of their physicochemical characteristics and their applications in the field of biotechnology. In recent years, the development of synthesizing NPs by plant extracts has become a major focus of researchers because of these NPs have low hazardous effect in the environment and low toxicity for the human body. Synthesized NPs from plants are not only more stable in terms of size and shape, also the yield of this method is higher than the other methods. Moreover, some of these MNPs have shown antimicrobial activity which is consistently confirmed in past few years. Plant extracts have been used as reducing agent and stabilizer of NPs in which we can reduce the toxicity in the environment as well as the human body only by not using chemical agents. Furthermore, the presence of some specific materials in plant extracts could be extremely helpful and effective for the human body; for instance, polyphenol, which may have antioxidant effects has the capability for capturing free radicals before they can react with other biomolecules and cause serious damages. In this article, we focused on of the most common plants which are regularly used to synthesize MNPs along with various methods for synthesizing MNPs from plant extracts.

Catalytic degradation of methylene blue by iron nanoparticles synthesized using Galinsoga parviflora, Conyza bonariensis and Bidens pilosa leaf extracts

“…Polyphenols in plants are responsible for the antioxidant behaviour of most plants and offer the potential of using plants as nutraceuticals as well as food additives. As discussed in the mechanism of nanoparticles formation [35,36], the phytochemicals present offer a complementary role in the reduction as well as stabilization of the iron nanoparticle [37]. The postulate underlying the green synthesis perspective is that the phytochemicals present in the plant naturally reduce as well as stabilize the nanoparticle [36][37][38][39] (Table 1).…”

Green Synthesis of an Activated Carbon-Supported Ag and ZnO Nanocomposite for Photocatalytic Degradation and Its Antibacterial Activities

“…The need for environmentally friendly synthetic procedures for nanoparticles leads to a high demand for green nanotechnology [38][39][40][41][42][43]. Many parts of plants such as leaf, fruit, stem, bark, root, leaf, and bud have been utilized for the green synthesis of Ag nanoparticles.…”

Bacterial synthesis of nanoparticles: A green approach

“…In addition, the surface of nanomaterials, unlike natural enzymes, which have only one active site in a molecule, may have more catalytic centers (Liu et al, 2015;Gao et al, 2017). Nanoparticles that can be used in biology and medicine should have low toxicity, or complete absence of toxicity, high biocompatibility, ability to biodegrade or be excreted naturally (Kozik et al, 2016;Bityutskyy et al, 2017;Chekman et al, 2017;Ovais et al, 2018b;Stoller et al, 2018;Yadi et al, 2018;Bityutskyy et al, 2019).…”