Abstract

A REVIEW ON PHARMACOLOGICAL IMPORTANCE OF LEAFY GREENS-MEDIATED SILVER NANOPARTICLES

Jannathul Firdhouse M. and Lalitha P.*

ABSTRACT

In the present scenario, herbs have created a revolution symbolizing the importance and safety, in contrast to the synthetic drugs all over the world. Nearly 25% modern medicines are derived from plants as their first line of defense for maintaining health and combating diseases that have been used by traditional medical practitioners. Green plants naturally synthesize various biochemical products which can be used as raw materials as drugs, food and feed stocks to provide scientific innovation. Plants are good source of secondary metabolites which find use in the pharmaceutical research. The present paper aims at investigating the main research undertaken on the leafy greens in order to provide sufficient baseline information for future work and commercial exploitation. The presence of active compounds such as flavonones, saponins, steroids, terpenoids etc. in the selected six leafy greens impelled us to synthesize the silver nanoparticles (AgNP’s) under sonication method. The pharmacological actions viz., antimicrobial, anticancer and antidiabetic activities of the synthesized AgNP’s were investigated and evaluated. The results of this study reveal leafy greens-mediated AgNP’s showed potential activities against diabetes, breast cancer cell lines (MCF-7) and also highly resistant to microbial threats.

Keywords: leafy greens, AgNP’s, MCF-7, diabetes.