Biosynthesized Selenium Nanoparticles: An Excellent Bait for Antioxidant Therapy

Nowadays use of antioxidants in the field of medicine are increasing because of health complications induced due to oxidative stress and elevated levels of reactive oxygen species. In addition to traditional antioxidant supplements, selenium should be supplied to the body in sufficient amounts as it acts as an important component for endogenous antioxidant enzymes. Since the dietary supplements for selenium can be toxic sometimes, researchers thought of using selenium nanoparticles for the same. However, the chemically synthesized selenium nanoparticles had many side effects on experimental animals, the green approach for synthesis of selenium nanoparticles using reducing/ capping/stabilizing agents of biological origin like fungi, microbes and plant extracts was investigated by many researchers. Selenium is an antioxidant element itself. Using biological agents of antioxidant nature to get nanoparticles from selenium salt, selenium nanoparticles with enhanced antioxidant properties may be generated. The present review covers the panorama of these studies and proposes green synthesized selenium nanoparticles with enhanced antioxidant potential to be an excellent bait for the therapy for oxidative damage.