Artemisia capillaris extracts as a green factory for the synthesis of silver nanoparticles with antibacterial activities.

We report a green synthesis of silver nanoparticles that uses extracts from the aerial part of Artemisia capillaris. Both water and 70% ethanol extracts successfully generated silver nanoparticles. The formation of silver nanoparticles was confirmed by surface plasmon resonance bands, Fourier transform-infrared spectra, high resolution-transmission electron and atomic force microscopic images. Various shapes of silver nanoparticles were generated with an average diameter of 29.71 nm with water extract and 29.62 nm with 70% ethanol extract. An improvement in antibacterial activity (MIC 8.35-16.7 microg/mL) was observed against a total of twenty different strains of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria. A remarkable enhancement (approximately 12-fold) was observed against Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Enterobacter cloacae, Klebsiella oxytoca, and Klebsiella areogenes when compared with the extract alone. Silver nanoparticles produced by the 70% ethanol extract showed slightly higher antibacterial activity than those generated with the water extract. The correlation between total flavonoid content of each extract and the antibacterial activity did not exert any significant relationships. This report suggests that plant extracts have the potential to be used as powerful reducing agents for the production of biocompatible silver nanoparticles possessing enhanced antibacterial activities.