Biogenic synthesis of carbon dots with inbuilt biological activity

Recently, carbon dots have been widely used for the diagnosis to treatment of disease, because of their distinctive properties. A lots of research work has been done on CDs, first is their synthesis as a green approach, which includes biomass, plant, and waste material as carbon precursor. Another is their application and properties. Carbon dots are generally used as a carrier for delivering the drug for treating diseases, which somehow reduces the toxicity of the drug and increases its activity but not that much. Our review focuses on the biogenic approach for the synthesis of carbon dots, which is also a part of green synthesis. Biogenic techniques involve the principle of using living organisms such as plants and microorganisms for the synthesis of carbon dots. The biogenic approach provides various benefits such as low toxicity, sustainable and renewable sources, eco-friendly, and some biological activity. Carbon dots prepared from the biogenic source provides biological properties such as antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and some other biological activity, which inbuilt into carbon dots and give their therapeutic action without further drug loading. Biological or therapeutic activity containing carbon dots also minimizes drug resistance, non-target side effects into cells and drug-related adverse effects, which provides great advancement for treating the diseases. Hence, this review is focused only on the biogenic synthesis of carbon dots using plants and microorganisms, their preparation technique, properties, formation mechanism, purification and their specific biological or therapeutic actions with the improvement of nanoscience.