Myco-synthesis of multi-twinned silver nanoparticles as potential antibacterial and antimalarial agents

In recent days, biogenic and green approaches for synthesizing nanostructures have gained much attention in biological and biomedical applications. Endophytic fungi have been recognized to produce several important biomolecules for use in various fields. The present work describes the use of endophytic fungi isolated from Berberis aristata for the synthesis of multi-twinned silver nanoparticles (MT-AgNPs) and their successful applications in antimicrobial and antimalarial studies. TEM images reveal the formation of multi-twined structures in the synthesized silver nanoparticles. The synthesized MT-AgNPs have shown excellent antibacterial activities against five opportunistic bacteria, viz. Bacillus subtilis (MTCC 441), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (MTCC 424), Escherichia coli (MTCC 443), Klebsiella pneumonia (MTCC 3384), and Aeromonas salmonicida (MTCC 1522). The synthesized MT-AgNPs also exhibit interesting antimalarial activities against Plasmodium falciparum parasites (3D7 strain) by displaying 100% inhibition at a concentration of 1 μg mL^-1 against the malaria parasite P. falciparum 3D7. Overall, the results describe a green method for the production of twinned-structured nanoparticles and their potential to be applied in the biomedical, pharmaceutical, food preservation, and packaging industries.