Biosynthesis of Selected Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

Review Article

Austin J Nanomed Nanotechnol. 2023; 11(1): 1069.

Biosynthesis of Selected Nanoparticles for Biomedical Applications

Javier Christian Ramirez-Perez*

Institute of Physics, Nuclear Physics Department, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil

*Corresponding author: Javier Christian Ramirez-Perez Institute of Physics, Nuclear Physics Department, University of Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo, Brazil. Tel: +51(11)982916169 Email: jramire7@kent.edu

Received: August 02, 2023 Accepted: August 22, 2023 Published: August 29, 2023

Abstract

Nanoparticles (NPs) are materials with a size scale of 100 nm or less. They are produced using a combination of chemical and physical techniques, and frequently include the use of hazardous substances. These hazardous substances are difficult to remove from nanoparticle surfaces, making them bioincompatible and limiting their application as biomedical nanoparticles. Nanoparticles can currently be synthesized biologically using methods based on green chemistry. The fusion of nanotechnology and biology has given rise to a new field called nanobiotechnology, which aims to harness biological entities such as actinomycetes, algae, bacteria, fungi, viruses, yeast, and plants in a number of physicochemical, biochemical, and biophysical processes. Plant extracts have been used in biological applications because they are a rich source of phytomolecules and because their capping and reducing capabilities have been used in the production of metal and metal oxide NPs. The biosynthesized NPs have not only been examined for their antibacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, anticancer, and biocompatibility properties but also for their morphology using a number of analytical techniques. This approach, which is affordable and environmentally friendly, could substitute traditional chemical and physical methods for biomedical applications.

Keywords Biosynthesis; Nanoparticles; Plant extracts; Biomedical application; Properties

Introduction

Nanotechnology is one of the most significant and fast growing fields involved in the synthesis of Nanoparticles (NPs) with at least one dimension in the size range of 1–100 nm resulting in high surface to volume ratio [65], this is a very important unique property that allows them to be used in different fields of chemical, food, electronic, and medical industries [61,62,64]. Synthesizing NPs can be done in a variety of ways, including physical, chemical, and biological methods (Figure 1). Physical and chemical approaches are commonly used in the commercial synthesis of NPs. Physical (laser ablation, arc discharging, radiation, photolithography, ball milling, etc.), chemical (sol-gel, solvothermal, co-precipitation, pyrolysis, chemical redox reaction, micro-emulsion, thermal decomposition, co-precipitation, sonochemical, flow-injection, hydrolysis/thermolysis of precursors, sol–gel and electrospray synthesis, photosynthesis, and chemical vapor deposition produces hazardous byproducts by utilizing harsh reducing agents, organic solvents, and poisonous compounds [1,8,56,61] and biological (plants, fungi, bacteria, algae, virus, yeast, plants, leaves, fruits, etc.) methods [14,46,62]. Physical and chemical methods often involve the use of harsh synthetic chemicals as reducing and capping agents in the chemical method, such as citrate, sodium borohydride, hypophosphite, and hydrazine [18,46], results in harsh chemicals adsorbing on the surface of produced NPs, increasing their toxicity (Vijay and Anu, 2017). Physical processes, on the other hand, such as plasma, pulsed laser, gamma radiation, and mechanical milling, demand a lot of energy and take longer to scale up than green synthesis [7,15,48]. As a result, the use of hazardous chemicals and solvents, as well as the demand for high energy, the reduction of capping agents, and scaling issues, are all key issues in the synthesis of these NPs. These toxic chemicals utilized in the synthesis of the NPs remain on the surface of the NPs even after several washing cycles. This compromises the biocompatibility of the NPs, and hence limits the applications of the NPs in particular in biomedicine, which could have a harmful impact on the environment and human being. In fact, the presence of residual hazardous chemical species on the surface of the synthesized NPs cannot be removed easily and could prohibit their biological and clinical applications [30].