Biogenic Synthesis of Metal Nanoparticles Using a Biosurfactant Extracted from Corn and Their Antimicrobial Properties.

A new and promising biosurfactant extracted from corn steep liquor has been used for the green synthesis of gold and silver nanoparticles (NPs) in a one-step procedure induced by temperature. Most of the biosurfactants proposed in the literature are produced by pathogenic microorganisms; whereas the biosurfactant used in the current work was extracted from a liquid stream, fermented spontaneously by lactic acid bacteria, which are "generally recognized as safe" (GRAS) microorganisms. The reduction of a gold precursor in the presence of a biosurfactant gives rise to a mixture of nanospheres and nanoplates with distinct optical features.