10 - Biomedical applications of green-synthesized metal nanoparticles using polysaccharides

Abstract

Nanotechnology brings an extensive alteration in modern diagnostic and therapeutic treatment strategies for different diseases. In view of a significant implication of metals/metal ions in different physiological processes, scientists had earlier developed various kinds of metal nanoparticles for diverse biomedical applications. However, there is a growing concern of toxicity and biosafety of medicinally important metal nanoparticles, which necessitates the fabrication of metal nanoparticles implementing green chemistry principle. Recently, several research groups have developed green-synthesized metal nanoparticles using polysaccharides (e.g., starch, cellulose, pectin, glucan, xanthan, dextrose, etc.) of different bio-resources (e.g., plant, bacteria, fungus, etc.) due to various advantages of green approach such as simple, fast, easy, safer, cost effective, and less toxic route as compared to other conventional chemical methods. This chapter describes the overview of recent advancement of green-synthesized metal nanoparticles employing polysaccharides for different biomedical applications including drug delivery, anticancer activity, antimicrobial activity, wound healing, bio-imaging, bio-sensing, blood coagulation, etc. Considering the promising clinical applications, in vivo toxicity studies of these nanomaterials are also discussed in a brief manner. Finally, we conclude with different challenges and future prospects of green-synthesized metal nanoparticles for their versatile biomedical applications.