Using Amino Acid-Silver Complexes Synthesized by Green Synthesis to Develop a New Antimicrobial Agent

The antimicrobial properties and importance of Ag + have been known since ancient times. However, resistance has started to develop against silver ions, which are used indiscriminately and in high concentrations. Therefore, it is necessary to synthesize new and different silver complexes. In this study, five new molecules were synthesized by green synthesis from amino acids. Firstly, the antimicrobial activities of these molecules were tested with agar well diffusion assay. The result of this work is that it was revealed that the amino acid-silver complexes had very high inhibitory activity against microorganisms such as S. typhimirium, S. epidermidis , P. aeruginosa , K. pneumoniae , Y. pseudotuberculosis , P. vulgaris , E. faecalis , B. subtilis, E. cloaceae , S. aureus , E. coli, L. monocytogenes, C. albicans , and C. parapsilosis . It was found that these molecules have inhibition and bactericidal activity at low concentrations. The MIC, MBC, and MFC values were determined between 1.54–46.5 µg/mL, 24.7–93.1 µg/mL, and 19.0–197.0 µg/mL, respectively. Then, to determine whether these molecules are suitable as antimicrobial agents, cytotoxic and antimutagenic activity tests were performed. The results of the cytotoxicity test showed that these molecules have no cytotoxic effect on the L929 fibroblast cells except some at higher doses (e.g. 10–100 mg/mL). In addition, cell viability stimulation was recorded at some doses below 10 mg/mL. Furthermore, these molecules showed antimutagenic activity at different concentrations 1.17–5.80 µg/mL. The use of these synthesized molecules as antimicrobial agents in many fields such as food and pharmacology seems very promising.