ISSN: 0975-8585 July-September 2013 RJPBCS Volume 4 Issue 3 Page No. 1085 Research Journal of Pharmaceutical, Biological and Chemical Sciences Phytogenic Silver Nanoparticle Synthesis with Potential Antibacterial Activity and Dye Degrading Ability Swetha Sunkar, Valli Nachiyar C and Karunya A Department of Biotechnology, Sathyabama University, Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India. ABSTRACT In light of the growing use of nanoparticles in various fields, their synthesis method plays a crucial role. Existing physical and chemical methods poses certain disadvantages in terms of toxic chemicals and harsh conditions employed. Biological means of synthesis is offering safe alternative in terms of its environment suitability. The main aim of this study is to fabricate silver nanoparticles using the pods of Phaseolus vulgaris under benign conditions. The antibacterial activity of the phytonanoparticles is evaluated against the pathogenic strains Escherichia coli ATCC 25922, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853 and Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Salmonella typhi ATCC 6539 and Klebsiella pneumoniae NCIM 2883. Their potential to degrade the dyes Congo red and Mordant black 17 was also checked. Plant mediated silver nanoparticles of size in the range of 20 – 80 nm were successfully synthesized. They were found to possess significant antibacterial activity and the MIC was determined to be 1.08µg/ml. On the other hand, the silver nanoparticles were able to decolorize Congo red dye up to 50% while Mordant Black 17 was minimally decolorized which may be due to their complex structure. Keywords: Plants; Phytonanoparticles; SEM; TEM; Antibacterial activity; Dye degradation. *Corresponding author