Abstract
The field of nanotechnology has developed new medicinal nanoparticles that
have various uses in pharmaceutics and healthcare. Distinct macroscopic and
microscopic entities including plants, fungi, microalgae, bacilli, and seaweed have been
used to biosynthesize nanoparticles. Naturally-occurring chemicals like flavonoids,
tannins, alkaloids, steroids, and saponins are abundantly present in plants. A potentially
unharmful method to produce nanoparticles can be through extracts of different plants.
As plant extracts carry many specialized metabolites, they can act as stabilizers and
reducers in bioreduction reactions that take place in metallic nanoparticle production.
The production of metallic nanoparticles by biological techniques is an easier, cheaper,
and more environmentally sound option in comparison with other physical and
chemical techniques that are extremely toxic and unsafe for biological use. Greener
nanoparticles like Co, Cu, Ag, Pd, Au, ZnO, Pt, and Fe3O4 have been biosynthesized
using medicinal plants. These nanoparticles have various uses in pharmaceutics ranging
from gene delivery, drug delivery, pathogen detection, tissue engineering, and protein
detection. Not only that but, metallic nanoparticles can also potentially be remedies to
different acute diseases including hepatitis, human immunodeficiency virus, malaria,
and even cancer. Improvements in drug delivery and tissue engineering have been
made possible by nanotechnology and this has greatly facilitated translational level
studies that relate to pharmaceutics. In this chapter, green syntheses of metallic
nanoparticles through medicinal plants along with their uses in therapeutic
improvements are described.
Keywords: Medicinal plant, Metallic nanoparticles, Nano-packaging, Nanodegradation, Phytotherapy, Reducing agent.
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