Antimicrobial Activity of Biosynthesized Silver Nanoparticles from Cannabis Sativa and Its Combination with Cefotaxime and Meropenem

Multidrug resistance (MDR) is a major cause of human challenge that impairs the trust between doctors and their patients, concomitant with huge economic losses. The study determine antimicrobial activity of biosynthesized silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) from Cannabis sativa and its combination with cefotaxime and meropenem. The AgNPs were biosynthesized from Cannabis sativa extracts and characterized with Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The antimicrobial activity of AgNPs, cefotaxime and meropenem against the Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi isolates from clinical sample were evaluated using the microbroth dilution method. The effect of combination of the AgNPs and cefotaxime or meropenem was evaluated using the checkerboard method. The size of Ag-NPs derived from Cannabis sativa particles was within the range of 179nm-269nm with an average of 224nm.The AgNPs biosynthesized from Cannabis sativa had activity against the isolates with minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) ranges from 62.5-31.25 mg/mL, cefotaxime MIC ranges from 16-8 (µg/mL) while meropenem 1-0.5(µg/mL). The combination of Cannabis sativa / cefotaxime, Cannabis sativa /meropenem had synergistic effect against Salmonella typhi and Escherichia coli with FICs ranges from 0.25-0.04 but had additive effect cefotaxime in combination with meropenem with FICs of 1.0-0.5. Finally, the combination of Cannabis sativa/cefotaxime had synergistic effect on E. coli and Salmonella typhi with FICs of 0.25. The biosynthesized AgNPs from Cannabis sativa had E. coli and Salmonella typhi activity with consistent effect in its combination with cefotaxime and meropenem against the E. coli and Salmonella typhi isolates.