Eco-Friendly Synthesis of Silver Nanoparticles Using V. serpens Plant, and Evaluation of Their Antibacterial Activity Against Enterococcus faecalis

An attempt was made to synthesize biocompatible silver nanoparticles by using V. serpens plant extract, which can be used in different biomedical applications. The synthesis of silver nanoparticles was optimized in various physicochemical conditions and highly stable silver nanoparticles were synthesized with 8.0 mL of V. serpens leaf extract, pH 7.0, 1.0 mM AgNO3 and 37 oC. The synthesized silver nanoparticles were characterized by UV-vis spectrophotometer, Ph analysis, FE-SEM, XRD and FTIR analysis. The average size of synthesized silver nanoparticles was 60-70 nm. The findings from our study showed that the aqueous extract of V. serpens and silver nitrate solution did not show significant inhibiting activity against Enterococcus faecalis bacteria in tested concentrations but the green synthesized silver nanoparticles, inhibited the growth of Enterococcus faecalis, which is responsible for many human diseases like urinary tract infection (UTI). In addition, synthesized silver nanoparticles showed a synergetic effect on the antimicrobial activity of the standard antibiotic levofloxacin against Enterococcus faecalis bacteria under this study. These findings indicate that green synthesized silver nanoparticles can be used to control Enterococcus faecalis-related human diseases as effective growth inhibitors.