Multiple types of inflammations caused by foreign pathogens or chemicals and mutations that upregulate inflammation enhancers kindle the need of developing new vectors for the treatment of inflammation. Nanoparticles have been used in various fields ranging from the food industry, cosmetic industry and agricultural industry to devices like sensors, solar cells, and batteries. Nanoparticles have been used in the medical and research fields due to their high penetration power even inside cells and have the excellent ligand-binding properties due to their high surface area to volume ratio. Mechanistic study of anti-inflammatory activities of various metal and metal oxide nanoparticles like silver, gold, zinc oxide, titanium dioxide, and selenium have been discussed in the following literature review. The present study focuses on the differential uptake of nanoparticles into cells and the anti-inflammatory mechanism adopted by the nanoparticles synthesized by green routes. It also gives a concise literature review of the various green sources used for the synthesis of nanoparticles and the mechanism of action of each nanoparticle. © 2018 The Authors