Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles by Escherichia coli : Analysis of antibacterial activity

The emerging infectious diseases and the development of drug resistance in the pathogenic microorganism is a matter of serious concern. Despite the increased knowledge of microbial pathogenesis and application of modern therapeutics, the morbidity and mortality associated with the microbial infections still remains high. Therefore, there is a pressing demand to discover novel strategies and identify new antimicrobial agents to develop the next generation of drugs or agents to control microbial infections. The use of nanoparticles is gaining impetus in the present century as they possess defined chemical, optical and mechanical properties. In the present study green synthesis of silver nanoparticles by Escherichia coli has been done. Various parameters such as mixing ratio of culture supernatant and silver nitrate, media, temperature and pH for production of silver nanoparticles were optimised. The nanoparticles synthesised was characterized using SEM, FTIR and XRD. The antibacterial activity of silver nanoparticles synthesised using both pellet and supernatant against human pathogens Salmonella typhi, Vibrio cholerae, Bacillus subtilis and Klebsiella pneumoniae was analysed and MIC was calculated as 20μg and 50μg respectively.