Abstract
Metal nanoparticles have received a great deal of attention from researchers
in recent decades due to their significant impact on a variety of important applications
such as biomedicine, agriculture, energy, electronics, and sensing. Biosynthesis is
another alternative approach in the synthesis of clean, reliable, cost-effective, and green
approaches that interest nano and microbial biotechnologies, in addition to many
conventional procedures reported for synthesizing metal nanoparticles. This chapter
describes the studies relating to fungal mediated synthesis of metal nanoparticles, as
well as their biomedical, catalytic, and agriculture applications. These fungi-based
biomolecules undergo highly controlled assembly in the synthesis of suitable metal
nanoparticles with different shapes, charges, and sizes. The formation mechanism has
not yet been completely explained, in spite of the fact that it is accepted that fungal
biomolecules are mostly used in the process. In fact, fungi are efficient biomolecules
used in the synthesis of metal nanoparticles that show a wide range of bioapplications
such as anti-cancer, anti-bacterial, antifungal, antioxidant, etc. This chapter highlights
the potential use of fungi as a novel source for the green synthesis of metal
nanoparticles with enhanced biomedical applications.
Keywords: Biomolecules, Biomedical applications, Chemical method, Conventional method, Green synthesis, Nanotechnology.