Cotton is a widely used raw material for textiles but drawbacks regarding their poor mechanical properties often limit their applications as functional materials. The present investigation involved process development for one step coating of cotton with silver nanoparticles (SNP) synthesized using Azadirachta indica and Citrus limon extract to develop functional textiles. Addition of starch to functional textiles led to efficient binding of nanoparticles to fabric and led to drastic decrease in release of silver from fabricated textiles after ten washing cycles enhancing their environment friendliness. Differential scanning calorimetry, scanning electron microscopy, FT-IR analysis and mechanical studies demonstrated efficient binding of nanoparticles to fabric through bio-based processes. The functional-ized textiles developed by the bio-based methods showed significant antibacterial activity against E. coli and S. aureus (with 99% micro-bial reduction). Present work offers a simple procedure for coating SNP using bio-based approaches with promising applications in specialized functions. © 2013 Bentham Science Publishers.