Biological Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles using Ginger (Zingiber Officinale) Extract

Plant extracts are very cost effective and eco-friendly and thus can be used as an economic and efficient alternative for the large-scale synthesis of nanoparticles. We report on the use of ginger extract for the biosynthesis of silver nanoparticles. Bioactive silver nanoparticle synthesis was byreacting the ginger extract with aqueous silver nitrate solution at room temperature (27±2 oC) and at 60 oC. Formation of silver nanoparticles was confirmed by UV– visible spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction pattern and Scherrer’s formula. Antibacterial activity of synthesized silver nanoparticles showed inhibitory activity against bacteriaviz., Escherichia coli, Klebsiellapneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Bacillus cereus and Proteus vulgaris.Additionally the toxicity of the produced nanoparticles was checked for phyto and genotoxicity.