Green synthesis of silver nanoparticles: An approach to overcome toxicity

Nanotechnology, with its advent, has made deep inroads into therapeutics. It has revolutionized conventional approaches in drug designing and delivery systems by creating a large array of nanoparticles that can pass even through relatively impermeable membranes such as blood brain barrier. Like the two sides of a coin, nanotechnology too has its own share of disadvantages which in this scenario is the toxicology of these nanoparticles. Numerous studies have discussed the toxicity of various nanoparticles and the recent advancements done in the field of nanotechnology is to make it less toxic. Green synthesis of nanoparticles is one such approach. The review summarizes the toxicity associated with the nanoparticles and the advancement of green nanomaterials to resolve the toxicity issues. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.