Available online 16 September 2022

The fungal nanofactories have been utilized to synthesize silver and gold nanoparticles. This study was designed to mycosynthesize, and characterizes silver and gold nanoparticles (Ag- and AuNPs) in addition to study their effect on aflatoxin B1 production by Aspergillus flavus.

Silver and gold nanoparticles were synthesized by endophytic Aspergillus versicolor, and then analyzed by performing UV-Vis spectroscopy that revealed surface plasmon resonance peaks at 432 and 536 nm for Ag and Au nanoparticles, respectively. The obtained Transmission Electron Microscopy results disclosed the fashioning of spherical AgNPs and spherical and hexagonal AuNPs with a mean particle magnitude of 5-37 and 37-62 nm, respectively. X-ray diffraction exposed the typical face-centered cubic structure of the mycosynthesized Ag and Au nanoparticles. The in vitro investigation showed that AgNPs, AuNPs and their mixture at different concentrations (10000, 5000, 3000, 1000, 750, 500, 250 and 125 µg/mL) had the ability to inhibit or reduce the outgrowth and production of aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) by A. flavus. The concentration that showed no AFB1 production was less than those for inhibition of fungal growth. Also, AgNPs, AuNPs, and their mixture exhibited promising anti-radical scavenging activity.

Use of fungi in the metallic nanoparticle’s fabrication as well as the utilization of mycosynthesized nanoparticles is promising as a substitute of chemicals to control antiaflatoxigenic fungi.

Aflatoxin B1

Antiaflatoxigenic

Aspergillus flavus

Fungal nanofactories

Gold nanoparticles

Green Chemistry

Mycosynthesis

Silver nanoparticles

silver nanoparticles

butylated hydroxytoluene

1,1-Diphenyl-2-picryl-hydrazyl

Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy

high performance liquid chromatography

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Transmission Electron Microscopy

thin-layer chromatography

© 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.