Secondary Metabolites Based Green Synthesis of Nanomaterials and Their Applications

Nanotechnology is gaining importance in every field of science and technology. Green synthesis of nanomaterials involves the use of microorganisms such as bacteria, fungi, viruses; and different lower and higher plants. Green synthesis of nanomaterials from plant extracts becoming popular in comparison to synthesis using microorganisms. Plant based-nanomaterials synthesis is easy, have no need to bring back from the culture medium, and is safe. Additionally, plant-based nanomaterials are eco-friendly, in comparison to physical and chemical modes of synthesis. Several lower and higher plants are rich in terms of secondary metabolites. These metabolites have been used as medicine in crude extract form or with some other formulations. They have been also used to isolate the bioactive compounds in modern medicine as well as in herbal medicine systems. Thus, phytochemicals present in the plant and their parts play an important role in nanomaterials synthesis, mainly due to the presence of a significant number of secondary metabolites, for instance, alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, steroids, tannins, etc. Further, essential and aromatic oils have been also explored for nanomaterials synthesis, and they are also equally useful in terms of their various biological applications. These organic ingredients come from a wide range of plant components, such as leaves, stems, roots, shoots, flowers, bark, and seeds. Globally, the presence of different plants has shown a capability to produce huge and diverse groups of secondary metabolites. The functional groups present in the plant extract acts as capping and stabilizing agent. Most of the time, pure isolated bioactive compounds are more biologically active; hence scholars are focusing their research on the synthesis of nanomaterials using some particular class of secondary metabolites. Investigations have shown that the green synthesized nanomaterials were found to be more biologically active in comparison to