Green Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using an Ephedra sinica Herb Extract with Antibacterial Properties

Background: The exceptional properties of the silver nanoparticles play an important role in nanoscience and nanotechnology, particularly in nanomedicine and also offer several applications in the biomedicine field. The development of antibacterials which are clinically useful against bacteria and drug resistant microorganisms, it is one of the main approaches of silver nanoparticles. However, it is essential to improve environmentally friendly methods for their synthesisin this respect, the principal aim of this research is focused on to propose a simplified and efficient green synthesis of silver nanoparticles with proven antibacterial properties. Methods: The green synthesis route is based on the use of the Ephedra sinica as reducing agent of the silver ions in aqueous solution at room temperature. Complementary, the antibacterial activity of the silver nanoparticles against E. coli, S. aureus, S. dysenteriae, B. cereus and L. monocytogenes was confirmed. Green synthesized silver nanoparticles have been characterized by UV-Vis spectroscopy, XRD, TEM and FTIR. Results: The silver nanoparticles revealed Gaussian distributions with the average diameter of 10 nm and results showed that the lowest MIC and MBC of Ephedra sinica herb extract were 25 and 50 mg/mL, respectively and also the lowest MIC and MBC of the antibacterial activity of the silver nanoparticles produced by Ephedra sinica herb extract were 6.25 and 12.5 mg/mL, respectively. Conclusion: The observed results suggested that using Ephedra sinica, it is possible to performed silver nanoparticles with controlled characteristics and with significant inhibitory activity against the E. coli, S. aureus, S. dysenteriae, B. cereus and L. monocytogenes.