Sodium alginate (SA)/poly (vinyl alcohol) (PVA) fibrous mats were prepared by electrospinning technique. ZnO nanoparticles of size similar to 160 nm was synthesized and characterized by UV spectroscopy, dynamic light scattering (DLS), XRD and infrared spectroscopy (IR). SA/PVA electrospinning was further carried out with ZnO with different concentrations (0.5, 1,2 and 5%) to get SA/PVA/ZnO composite nanofibers. The prepared composite nanofibers were characterized using FT-IR, XRD, TGA and SEM studies. Cytotoxicity studies performed to examine the cytocompatibility of bare and composite SA/PVA fibers indicate that those with 0.5 and 1% ZnO concentrations are less toxic where as those with higher concentrations of ZnO is toxic in nature. Cell adhesion potential of this mats were further proved by studying with L929 cells for different time intervals. Antibacterial activity of SA/PVA/ZnO mats were examined with two different bacteria strains: Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli, and found that SA/PVA/ZnO mats shows antibacterial activity due to the presence of ZnO. Our results suggest that this could be an ideal biomaterial for wound dressing applications once the optimal concentration of ZnO which will give least toxicity while providing maximum antibacterial activity is identified.f (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.