Potentiation of Allium sativum extract and silver

nanoparticles used as an antifungal agent

Robles-Martínez, Marissa1*; Patiño-Herrera, Rosalba2; Pérez, Elías3** 
1Doctorado Institucional de Ciencias e Ingeniería de los Materiales, UASLP. 2 Instituto Tecnológico de Celaya, Tecnológico Nacional de México Celaya, Guanajuato, Mexico,
3Instituto de Física de la Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí

*e-mail: robles.mar@hotmail.com*, jelias.perezl@gmail.com**

1. Introduction

Many plants are bio-resource drugs of traditional and modern medicine due to their
active substances with therapeutic effects [1]. Garlic is one of the most common plant
used due to its antithrombotic, antioxidant, hypertensive, amebicide, parasiticide,
antimicrobial, antifungal activity and cholesterol synthesis inhibitor in mammalian cells.
[2-4]. Beside, silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are currently used to control bacterial
growth in a wide application [5]. The aim of this work was to determine the
antimycotic efficiency of botanical medicine, represented by garlic (AsExt), compared
to successful and modern nanotechnology, represented by silver nanoparticles
(AgNPs); and then to determine the antimycotic efficiency of garlic extract (AsExt),
decorated with silver nanoparticles (AgNPs), to potent antifungal effect.

2. Results and Discussion

AgNPs/AsExt System characterization

Figure 3. The successful AsExt decorated with AgNPs is depicted by

Ag 3d spectrum, as characterized by Ag 3d5/2 and Ag 3d3/2 doublet.
O 1s spectrum, which confirmed silver oxide in AgNPs sample and
shows a peak at 531.9 eV binding energy assigned to O-S (from AsExt),
N-O, Ag-O bonds. XPS study indicates that silver on Allium sativum
extract (AsExt) is in Ag0 and Ag+ states.

Figure 1. TEM images shows the presence of a) nearly spherical shape

polydispersed AgNPs, with a 26±7 nm as averaged size. b) shows A. sativum
extracts doped with AgNPs, EDX analysis confirms the formation of this system
(AsExt-AgNPs), such as carbon (65%), oxygen (12%), silver (7%) and sulfur at
0.9%.

Figure 4. Cell proliferation test of Table 1 shows AsExt-AgNPs

Allium sativum extract decorated
with silver nanoparticles (AsExt-
AgNPs), at lower concentration
ranging from 0.05 to 0.4 mg/L,
there was no reduction in PBMC
cells. ISO 10993-5:2009
Figure 2. The surface plasmon resonance (SPR) band around 420 nm standard indicates that a
indicates silver nanoparticle formation.The absorption edge around 311 nm compound below 80% of cell
corresponds to a transition from AgNPs to AsExt-AgNPs. Other peaks viability is classified as toxic.
between 220 and 300 nm are observed, which are mainly due to proteins
present in A. sativum extract (Fig. 3). At 5 °C with light protection during 20
days, a maximum wavelength towards 436 nm was observed, also 3. Conclusions
increase the absorbance.
potentiation, when decorated AsExt
(0.0004 mg/mL) with AgNPs (0.08,
0.06, 0.04, 0.02 or 0.01 mg/mL),
there is a total inhibition of T. rubrum
in all cases. The MIC of AsExt
against T. rubrum was 0.04 mg/mL,
while for AgNPs, it was > 0.08 mg/
mL.

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