In vitro antibacterial, antibiofilm, antioxidant and cytotoxic analysis of green synthesized silver nanoparticles using Terminalia bellirica bark extract.

The present study explores the biosynthesis potential of an aqueous bark extract of Terminalia bellirica plant for silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) synthesis. The aqueous extract facilitates the reduction of AgNO thereby leading to formation of AgNPs followed by capping via its biomolecules. The AgNPs thus obtained were found to be of ⁓ 35 nm and ∼100 nm as evidenced by SEM and DLS, respectively. The antibacterial and antibiofilm studies were observed to be promising wherein the MIC values were half the concentration of that of the MBC values for all the bacterial strains i.e. 0.488 and 0.976 μg/ml in case of B. subtilis, S. aureus and P. aeruginosa while it was 1.953 and 3.906 μg/ml in case of E. coli. Maximum biofilm inhibition was observed in the case of B. subtilis while minimum in the case of S. aureus. Cytotoxicity studies on HEK 293 cells showed that 50 % of the HEK 293 cells remain viable till 5 μg/ml of AgNPs dose. Thus, it may be deduced that the AgNPs reported here are effective antibacterial agents and maybe used for combating antimicrobial resistance without any remarkable cytotoxicity.