POWDERED silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) was successfully …….prepared.through addition of AgNO3 to alkali dissolved starch. The latter was used as eco-friendly biopolymers which played the dual role as reducing and stabilizing agent followed by precipitation with ethyl alcohol. The as prepared AgNPs powders have the smallest size (12-22nm), polydispersity (0.163) as well as zeta potential (-28mv) indicating higher surface area, the highly distributed nanoparticles as well as long-term stability of their product. These powdered AgNPs were re-dispersed in distilled water and diluted to different concentrations (250, 125 and 60 ppm). The diluted solution of AgNPs was applied to cotton fabrics as per the pad-dry-cure technique. The antimicrobial, wound healing, anti-inflammatory as well as toxicity of cotton fabrics loaded with these three different concentrations of AgNPs colloidal solution were evaluated. AgNPs in three different states, viz., in the powder form, in aqueous solution and deposited onto cotton fabrics were characterized using the world-class facilities such as UV-Vis spectroscopy, Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), Particle size analyzer, Polydispersity index (PdI), Zeta potential (ZP) and Scanning Electron Microscopy connected with Energy Dispersive X-ray (SEM-EDX). Cotton fabrics containing 250 ppm AgNPs were more effective against different species of microorganisms than those of dressing containing 60 and 125 ppm as indicated by the inhibition zone. Wound healing caused by dressing containing the highest content of AgNPs displayed the highest potent healing, with great similarity to the controlled cream (Dermazin). Moreover, the anti-inflammatory effect of 0.5 ml dose AgNPs (250 ppm) is nearly similar to 20 ml dose of the reference drug (indomethacin). Also reported was that, the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) for the produced AgNPs on subsequent experiments was 10 μg/ml.
Silver was extensively used to control infections since ancient times. Nowadays, silver is finding wide- spread applications in medical domains
(1). Silver-based medical products were proven to be effective in retarding and preventing bacterial infections(2). It is worthy reporting that there is an increasing interest toward the exploitation of silver nanoparticles technology in the development of