PRODUCTION, CHARACTERIZATION AND ANTIMICROBIAL ACTIVITY OF SILVER NANOPARTICLES PRODUCED BY LACTOBACILLUS AMYLOPHILUS GV6.

K. Kiran Kumar, S. Mahalakshmi, N. Harikrishna and Gopal Reddy*

ABSTRACT

Biological production of nanoparticles and their applications is a relatively new area of research. Silver nanoparticles are produced chemically which involves different solvents and are not safe. Production of silver nanoparticles by microorganisms / biological methods is gaining importance as it is safer and useful in both medical and non-medical applications. Lactobacillus amylophilus GV6, a GRAS strain is observed to produce silver nanoparticles in fermented broth. We have observed that the strain has ability to produce monodispersed silver nanoparticles in the range of 20 - 25 nm as observed in the TEM micrographs and were characterised by UV-Visible spectrophotometry, AAS, FTIR and XRD. Silver nanoparticles produced by L. amylophilus GV6 have antibacterial activity against both Gram positive and Gram negative pathogenic bacteria.

Keywords: Nanoparticles, AgNPs, L. amylophilus, antibacterial.