Mycogenic fabrication of silver nanoparticles using Picoa, Pezizales, characterization and their antifungal activity

Abstract

In this work, silver nanoparticles have been mycofabricated from Picoa sp. (a desert truffle) for the first time. Also, the antifungal activity of Picoa-AgNPs has been investigated against three pathogenic fungi, including Pythium sp., Aspergillus flavus, and Aspergillus niger, which can cause severe damage to health and agriculture. Morphology and physico-chemical characteristics of the mycofabricated AgNPs were thoroughly described by UV–VIS, XRD, FESEM, TEM, FT-IR and Zeta Potential analyses. The optimum synthesis time of the AgNPs during the reaction progress was 60 min and outstanding at the peak of 440 nm. Nano-irregular shapes with an average size of 19.5 nm and high stability (−20.9 mV) have been recorded. FT-IR spectra showed high amino acid content in the Picoa sp. extract efficiently will achieves the bioreduction reaction of Ag ions to Ag atoms. The higher inhibition percentage of Picoa-AgNPs was 30.81% against Pythium sp. at the concentration of 10%, while the concentration of 5% showed a low inhibitory effect (13.51%). The concentration of 5% exhibited an inhibitory impact reached 16.67% against Aspergillus niger. These findings have shown a promising outlook for the use of Picoa (Pezizales) in the production of AgNPs for its use as antifungal nanodrug.