An antimicrobial is an agent that kills microorganisms or inhibits their growth. There are several industry depends on antibacterial agents like textile industry, water disinfection, medicine, and food packaging. Organic compounds used for disinfection have some disadvantages such as toxicity to the human body. Therefore, the interest in inorganic disinfectants such as metal oxide nanoparticles (NPs) is increasing.
One of the most important inorganic disinfectant nanoparticles is Silver (Ag). Silver ions or salts are well known, but the effects of Ag nanoparticles on microorganisms has received considerable attention in the past few years in the field of microbiology and biotechnology.
The antimicrobial activity of Ag nanoparticles was investigated against yeast, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus. First advantage of Ag is that it is a bacterial growth inhibitor. Ag nanoparticles inhibit growth of these microorganisms. This inhibition come from the free-radical generation effect of Ag nanoparticles on microbial growth. Moreover, the Silver ion is biologically active and readily interacts with proteins, amino acid residues, free anions and receptors on mammalian and eukaryotic cell membranes. Second advantage of Silver is low toxicity. Silver exhibits low toxicity in the human body, bears minimum risk due to clinical exposure by inhalation, ingestion, dermal application or through urological or haematogenous route.
These results suggest that Ag nanoparticles can be used as effective growth inhibitors in various microorganisms, making them applicable to diverse fields. These fields include medical device, food packaging, antimicrobial control systems, personal hygiene products, antibiotics
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