Insight of nanotechnological processing for nano-fortified functional foods and nutraceutical-opportunities, challenges, and future scope in food for better health.

In the twenty-first century food sector, nanotechnological processing is a new frontier that has vibrant impact on enhancing the food quality, nutritional value, food safety, and nano-fortified functional foods aspects. In addition, the added-value of various robust nano-scale materials facilitates the targeted delivery of nutraceutical ingredients and treatment of obesity and comorbidities. The recent advancement in nanomaterial-assisted palatability enhancement of healthy foods opened up a whole new area of research and development in food nanoscience. However, there is no comprehensive review available on promises of nanotechnology in the food industry in the existing literature. Thus, herein, an effort has been made to cover this leftover literature gap by spotlighting the new nanotechnological frontier and their future scope in food engineering for better health. Following a brief introduction, promises of nanotechnology have revolutionized the twenty-first century food sector of the modern world. Next, recent and relevant examples discuss the exploitation and deployment of nanomaterials in food to attain certain health benefits. A detailed insight is also given by discussing the role of nano-processing in nutraceutical delivery to treat obesity and comorbidities. The latter half of the work focuses on improving healthy foods' palatability and food safety aspects to meet the growing consumer demands. Furthermore, marketed products and public acceptance of nanotechnologically designed food items as well as future prospects are also covered herein.

Design of a nanobiosystem with remote photothermal gene silencing in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to increase lipid accumulation and production.

Research development in the precise control of gene expression in plant cells is an emerging necessity that would lead to the elucidation of gene function in these biological systems. Conventional gene-interfering techniques, such as micro-RNA and short interfering RNA, have limitations in their ability to downregulate gene expression in plants within short time periods. However, nanotechnology provides a promising new avenue with new tools to overcome these challenges. Here, we show that functionalized gold nanoparticles, decorated with sense and antisense oligonucleotides (FANSAO), can serve as a remote-control optical switch for gene interference in photosynthetic plant cells. We demonstrate the potential of employing LEDs as optimal light sources to photothermally dehybridize the oligonucleotides on the surface of metallic nanostructures, consequently inducing regulation of gene expression in plant cells. We show the efficiency of metallic nanoparticles in absorbing light from an LED source and converting it to thermal energy, resulting in a local temperature increase on the surface of the gold nanoparticles. The antisense oligonucleotides are then released due to the opto-thermal heating of the nanobiosystem composed of the metallic nanoparticles and the sense-antisense oligonucleotides. By applying this approach, we silenced the Carnitine Acyl Carnitine Translocase genes at 90.7%, resulting in the accumulation of lipid bodies in microalgae cells. These results exhibit the feasibility of using functionalized gold nanoparticles with sense and antisense oligonucleotides to enhance nucleic acid delivery efficiency and, most importantly, allow for temporal control of gene silencing in plant cells. These nanobiosystems have broad applications in the development and biosynthesis of biofuels, pharmaceuticals, and specialized chemicals.

Pharmaceutical pollution fingerprinting and waterbodies remediation using waste-derived carbon dots as sustainable advanced nanomaterials.

The conversion of biomass waste into high-value nanomaterials such as carbon dots might represent a great advancement towards a circular economy system. Biomass wastes are an excellent choice as carbon precursors because of their wide availability, abundance, chemical composition, and eco-friendly nature. Moreover, their use as a raw material might decrease the total cost of the synthesis processes and reduce the environmental impacts. In addition, the complex composition of biomass leads to carbon dots with abundant functional groups, which in turn enhances water dispersibility and photoluminescence properties. In this manner, the effective transformation of biomass wastes into carbon dots reduces environmental pollution through the inadequate management of waste while producing carbon dots with enhanced performances. Therefore, this review describes biomass wastes as potential candidates for the synthesis of carbon dots through different synthesis methods. In addition, we have analyzed the great potential of biomass-derived carbon dots (CDs) for the degradation and detection of emerging pharmaceutical pollutants by promoting a circular economy approach. Finally, we identified current challenges to propose possible research directions for the large-scale and sustainable synthesis of high-quality biomass-derived CDs.

Environmental concerns and bioaccumulation of psychiatric drugs in water bodies - Conventional versus biocatalytic systems of mitigation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought increments in market sales and prescription of medicines commonly used to treat mental health disorders, such as depression, anxiety, stress, and related problems. The increasing use of these drugs, named psychiatric drugs, has led to their persistence in aquatic systems (bioaccumulation), since they are recalcitrant to conventional physical and chemical treatments typically used in wastewater treatment plants. An emerging environmental concern caused by the bioaccumulation of psychiatric drugs has been attributed to the potential ecological and toxicological risk that these medicines might have over human health, animals, and plants. Thus, by the application of biocatalysis-assisted techniques, it is possible to efficiently remove psychiatric drugs from water. Biocatalysis, is a widely employed and highly efficient process implemented in the biotransformation of a wide range of contaminants, since it has important differences in terms of catalytic behavior, compared to common treatment techniques, including photodegradation, Fenton, and thermal treatments, among others. Moreover, it is noticed the importance to monitor transformation products of degradation and biodegradation, since according to the applied removal technique, different toxic transformation products have been reported to appear after the application of physical and chemical procedures. In addition, this work deals with the discussion of differences existing between high- and low-income countries, according to their environmental regulations regarding waste management policies, especially waste of the drug industry.

Microalgae-Based Biotechnology as Alternative Biofertilizers for Soil Enhancement and Carbon Footprint Reduction: Advantages and Implications.

Due to the constant growth of the human population and anthropological activity, it has become necessary to use sustainable and affordable technologies that satisfy the current and future demand for agricultural products. Since the nutrients available to plants in the soil are limited and the need to increase the yields of the crops is desirable, the use of chemical (inorganic or NPK) fertilizers has been widespread over the last decades, causing a nutrient shortage due to their misuse and exploitation, and because of the uncontrolled use of these products, there has been a latent environmental and health problem globally. For this reason, green biotechnology based on the use of microalgae biomass is proposed as a sustainable alternative for development and use as soil improvers for crop cultivation and phytoremediation. This review explores the long-term risks of using chemical fertilizers for both human health (cancer and hypoxia) and the environment (eutrophication and erosion), as well as the potential of microalgae biomass to substitute current fertilizer using different treatments on the biomass and their application methods for the implementation on the soil; additionally, the biomass can be a source of carbon mitigation and wastewater treatment in agro-industrial processes.

Growth Behavior, Biomass Composition and Fatty Acid Methyl Esters (FAMEs) Production Potential of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, and Chlorella vulgaris Cultures.

The production of biomolecules by microalgae has a wide range of applications in the development of various materials and products, such as biodiesel, food supplements, and cosmetics. Microalgae biomass can be produced using waste and in a smaller space than other types of crops (e.g., soja, corn), which shows microalgae's great potential as a source of biomass. Among the produced biomolecules of greatest interest are carbohydrates, proteins, lipids, and fatty acids. In this study, the production of these biomolecules was determined in two strains of microalgae (Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Chlorella vulgaris) when exposed to different concentrations of nitrogen, phosphorus, and sulfur. Results show a significant microalgal growth (3.69 g L-1) and carbohydrates (163 mg g-1) increase in C. reinhardtii under low nitrogen concentration. Also, higher lipids content was produced under low sulfur concentration (246 mg g-1). It was observed that sulfur variation could affect in a negative way proteins production in C. reinhardtii culture. In the case of C. vulgaris, a higher biomass production was obtained in the standard culture medium (1.37 g L-1), and under a low-phosphorus condition, C. vulgaris produced a higher lipids concentration (248 mg g-1). It was observed that a low concentration of nitrogen had a better effect on the accumulation of fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) (C16-C18) in both microalgae. These results lead us to visualize the effects that the variation in macronutrients can have on the growth of microalgae and their possible utility for the production of microalgae-based subproducts.

Effect of Instant Controlled Pressure Drop (DIC) on Polyphenols, Flavonoids and Antioxidant Capacity of Green Lentils (Lens culinaris).

Instant controlled pressure drop (DIC) is one of the emerging technologies in food processing; it can be used for drying, freezing and the extraction of bioactive molecules without damaging their properties. Legumes, such as lentils, are one of the most consumed foods in the world; however, they are mainly cooked by boiling, which causes the loss of antioxidant compounds. This work evaluated the effect of 13 different DIC treatments (with pressure ranges of 0.1-0.7 MPa and times of 30-240 s) on the content of polyphenols (Folin-Ciocalteu and High Performance Liquid Chromatography HPLC) and flavonoids (2-aminoethyl diphenylborinate) as well as the antioxidant activity (DPPH and TEAC) of green lentils. The DIC 11 treatment (0.1 MPa, 135 s) obtained the best release of polyphenols, which in turn are related to antioxidant capacity. The abiotic stress generated by DIC could lead to the breakdown of the cell wall structure, which favors the availability of antioxidant compounds. Finally, the most efficient conditions for DIC to promote the release of phenolic compounds and maintain antioxidant capacity were found under low pressures (<0.1 MPa) and short times (<160 s).

Antioxidant Activity and GC-MS Profile of Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) Essential Oil Obtained by a Combined Extraction Method-Instant Controlled Pressure Drop Technology Coupled with Sonication.

Cardamom Essential oils are highly demanded because of their antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant activities. Nonetheless, retrieving quality extracts quickly with efficient energy savings has been challenging. Therefore, green technologies are emerging as possible alternatives. Thus, this study evaluates the yield and quality of the instant controlled pressure drop (DIC) process coupled with ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) of cardamom essential oil (CEO). Likewise, the antioxidant activity, chemical profile of CEO, and microstructure of seeds were analyzed. This study analyzed 13 different treatments with varying saturated steam processing temperatures (SSPT), thermal processing times (TPT), and 1 control. The results showed that CEO yield increased significantly by DIC (140 °C and 30 s) and UAE compared to the control (22.53% vs. 15.6%). DIC 2 (165 °C, 30 s) showed the highest DPPH inhibition (79.48%) and the best Trolox equivalent antioxidant capacity (TEAC) by the control with 0.60 uMTE/g. The GC/MS analysis showed 28 volatile constituents, withα-Terpinyl acetate, geranyl oleate, and oleic acid being the most abundant. DIC (140 °C and 30 s) and UAE showed the best yield and chemical profile. The SEM microscopy of untreated seeds revealed collapsed structures before the oil cell layer, which reduced the extraction yield, contrary to DIC-treated seeds, with more porous structures. Therefore, combining innovative extraction methods could solve the drawbacks of traditional extraction methods.

Biosensors for the detection of disease outbreaks through wastewater-based epidemiology.

Wastewater-Based Epidemiology (WBE) is a novel community-wide monitoring tool that provides comprehensive real-time data of the public and environmental health status and can contribute to public health interventions, including those related to infectious disease outbreaks (e.g., the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic). Nonetheless, municipalities without centralized laboratories are likely still not able to process WBE samples. Biosensors are a potentially cost-effective solution to monitor the development of diseases through WBE to prevent local outbreaks. This review discusses the economic and technical feasibility of eighteen recently developed biosensors for the detection and monitoring of infectious disease agents in wastewater, prospecting the prevention of future pandemics.

Bio-removal of emerging pollutants by advanced bioremediation techniques.

This review highlights the relevance of bioremediation techniques for the removal of emerging pollutants (EPs). The EPs are chemical or biological pollutants that are not currently monitored or regulated by environmental authorities, but which can enter the environment and cause harmful effects to the environment and human health. In recent times, an ample range of EPs have been found in water bodies, where they can unbalance ecosystems and cause negative effects on non-target species. In addition, some EPs have shown high rates of bioaccumulation in aquatic species, thus affecting the safety and quality of seafood. The negative impacts of emerging pollutants, their wide distribution in the environment, their bioaccumulation rates, and their resistance to wastewater treatment plants processes have led to research on sustainable remediation. Remediation techniques have been recently directed to advanced biological remediation technologies. Such technologies have exhibited numerous advantages like in-situ remediation, low costs, eco-friendliness, high public acceptance, and so on. Thus, the present review has compiled the most recent studies on bioremediation techniques for water decontamination from emerging pollutants to extend the current knowledge on sustainable remediation technologies. Biological emerging contaminants, agrochemicals, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and pharmaceutical and personal care products were considered for this review study, and their removal by bioremediation techniques involving plants, bacteria, microalgae, and fungi. Finally, further research opportunities are presented based on current challenges from an economic, biological, and operation perspective.

Nanohybrid catalysts with porous structures for environmental remediation through photocatalytic degradation of emerging pollutants.

Water supplies have been seriously challenged by new emerging pollutants, which are difficult to remove by traditional wastewater treatment. Thus, new technologies such as catalytic advanced oxidation processes have merged as suitable solutions; however, the drawbacks of typical catalysts limit their application. To overcome this issue, new materials with enhanced textural properties have been developed, showing that their porosity and chemical nature influence their potential as a catalyst. Herein, the recent progress in highly porous catalysts and their suitable deployment to effectively nano-remediate the polluted environmental matrices are reviewed in detail. First, following a brief introduction, several environmental pollutants of emerging concerns from different sectors, including pharmaceutical residues, endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs), pesticides, and hazardous dyes are also introduced with relevant examples. To effectively tackle the sustainable remediation of emerging pollutants, this work also focuses on the multifunctional features of nanohybrid porous materials that act as catalysts constructs to degrade emerging pollutants. The influence of surface reactive centers, stability, bandgap energies, light absorption capacities, and pollutants adsorption capacities are also discussed. Successful examples of the employment of nanohybrid porous catalysts for the degradation of pharmaceutical pollutants, EDCs, pesticides, and hazardous dyes are summarized. Finally, some challenges faced by nanohybrid porous materials to achieve their potential application as advanced catalysts for environmental remediation have been identified and presented herein.

Microalgae Photo-Protectants and Related Bio-Carriers Loaded with Bioactive Entities for Skin Applications-An Insight of Microalgae Biotechnology.

Microalgae are photosynthetic organisms known for producing valuable metabolites under different conditions such as extreme temperatures, high salinity, osmotic pressure, and ultraviolet radiation. In recent years, these metabolites have become a trend due to their versatility in applications such as pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and others. They have even been proposed as an alternative source of bioactive metabolites to avoid the harmful effects on the environment produced by active compounds such as oxybenzone in commercials sunscreens. One of the most studied applications is the use of microalgae for skin care and topical use as cosmeceuticals. With the increasing demand for more environmentally friendly products in cosmetics, microalgae have been further explored in relation to this application. It has been shown that some microalgae are resistant to UV rays due to certain compounds such as mycosporine-like amino acids, sporopollenin, scytonemin, and others. These compounds have different mechanisms of action to mitigate UV damage induced. Still, they all have been proven to confer UV tolerance to microalgae with an absorbance spectrum like the one in conventional sunscreens. This review focuses on the use of these microalgae compounds obtained by UV stimulation and takes advantage of their natural UV-resistant characteristics to potentially apply them as an alternative for UV protection products.

Chitosan-Based Carbon Dots with Applied Aspects: New Frontiers of International Interest in a Material of Marine Origin.

Carbon dots (CDs) have attracted significant research attention worldwide due to their unique properties and advantageous attributes, such as superior optical properties, biocompatibility, easy surface functionalization, and more. Moreover, biomass-derived CDs have attracted much attention because of their additional advantages related to more environmentally friendly and lower-cost synthesis. In this respect, chitosan has been recently explored for the preparation of CDs, which in comparison to other natural precursors exhibited additional advantages. Beyond the benefits related to the eco-friendly and abundant nature of chitosan, using it as a nanomaterial precursor offers additional benefits in terms of structure, morphology, and dopant elements. Furthermore, the high content of nitrogen in chitosan allows it to be used as a single carbon and nitrogen precursor for the preparation of N-doped CDs, significantly improving their fluorescent properties and, therefore, their performances. This review addresses the most recent advances in chitosan-based CDs with a special focus on synthesis methods, enhanced properties, and their applications in different fields, including biomedicine, the environment, and food packaging. Finally, this work also addresses the key challenges to be overcome to propose future perspectives and research to unlock their great potential for practical applications.

Exploring Marine as a Rich Source of Bioactive Peptides: Challenges and Opportunities from Marine Pharmacology.

This review highlights the underexplored potential and promises of marine bioactive peptides (MBPs) with unique structural, physicochemical, and biological activities to fight against the current and future human pathologies. A particular focus is given to the marine environment as a significant source to obtain or extract high-value MBPs from touched/untouched sources. For instance, marine microorganisms, including microalgae, bacteria, fungi, and marine polysaccharides, are considered prolific sources of amino acids at large, and peptides/polypeptides in particular, with fundamental structural sequence and functional entities of a carboxyl group, amine, hydrogen, and a variety of R groups. Thus, MBPs with tunable features, both structural and functional entities, along with bioactive traits of clinical and therapeutic value, are of ultimate interest to reinforce biomedical settings in the 21st century. On the other front, as the largest biome globally, the marine biome is the so-called "epitome of untouched or underexploited natural resources" and a considerable source with significant potentialities. Therefore, considering their biological and biomedical importance, researchers around the globe are redirecting and/or regaining their interests in valorizing the marine biome-based MBPs. This review focuses on the widespread bioactivities of MBPs, FDA-approved MBPs in the market, sustainable development goals (SDGs), and legislation to valorize marine biome to underlying the impact role of bioactive elements with the related pathways. Finally, a detailed overview of current challenges, conclusions, and future perspectives is also given to satisfy the stimulating demands of the pharmaceutical sector of the modern world.

Revalorization of Microalgae Biomass for Synergistic Interaction and Sustainable Applications: Bioplastic Generation.

Microalgae and cyanobacteria are photosynthetic microorganisms' sources of renewable biomass that can be used for bioplastic production. These microorganisms have high growth rates, and contrary to other feedstocks, such as land crops, they do not require arable land. In addition, they can be used as feedstock for bioplastic production while not competing with food sources (e.g., corn, wheat, and soy protein). In this study, we review the macromolecules from microalgae and cyanobacteria that can serve for the production of bioplastics, including starch and glycogen, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs), cellulose, polylactic acid (PLA), and triacylglycerols (TAGs). In addition, we focus on the cultivation of microalgae and cyanobacteria for wastewater treatment. This approach would allow reducing nutrient supply for biomass production while treating wastewater. Thus, the combination of wastewater treatment and the production of biomass that can serve as feedstock for bioplastic production is discussed. The comprehensive information provided in this communication would expand the scope of interdisciplinary and translational research.

Resource recovery of lignocellulosic biomass waste into lactic acid - Trends to sustain cleaner production.

Biomass waste generation concerns regulatory authorities to develop novel methods to sustain biotransformation processes. Particularly, lactic acid (LA) is a bulk commodity chemical used in diverse industries and holds a growing global market demand. Recently, lignocellulosic waste biomass is preferred for LA bio-production because of its non-edible and inexpensive nature. However, the information about new pretreatment methods for lignocellulosic feedstock, and novel strains capable to produce LA through fermentation is limited. Therefore, this review highlights the advancement of pretreatments methods of lignocellulosic biomass and biotransformation. Herein, we first briefly explored the main sources of lignocellulosic waste biomass, then we explored their latest advances in pretreatment processes particularly supercritical fluid extraction, and microwave-assisted extraction. Approaches for bioconversion were also analyzed, such as consolidated bioprocessing (CBP), simultaneous saccharification and fermentation (SSF), separate hydrolysis fermentation (SHF), among other alternatives. Also, new trends and approaches were documented, such as metagenomics to find novel strains of microorganisms and the use of recombinant strategies for the creation of new strains. Finally, we developed a holistic and sustainable perspective based on novel microbial ecology tools such as next-gen sequencing, bioinformatics, and metagenomics. All these shed light on the needs to culture powerful microbial isolates, co-cultures, and mixed consortia to improve fermentation processes with the aim of optimizing cultures and feedstock pretreatments.

Nano-Size Characterization and Antifungal Evaluation of Essential Oil Molecules-Loaded Nanoliposomes.

Nanoliposomes, bilayer vesicles at the nanoscale, are becoming popular because of their safety, patient compliance, high entrapment efficiency, and prompt action. Several notable biological activities of natural essential oils (EOs), including fungal inhibition, are of supreme interest. As developed, multi-compositional nanoliposomes loaded with various concentrations of clove essential oil (CEO) and tea tree oil (TTO) were thoroughly characterized to gain insight into their nano-size distribution. The present work also aimed to reconnoiter the sustainable synthesis conditions to estimate the efficacy of EOs in bulk and EO-loaded nanoliposomes with multi-functional entities. Following a detailed nano-size characterization of in-house fabricated EO-loaded nanoliposomes, the antifungal efficacy was tested by executing the mycelial growth inhibition (MGI) test using Trichophyton rubrum fungi as a test model. The dynamic light scattering (DLS) profile of as-fabricated EO-loaded nanoliposomes revealed the mean size, polydispersity index (PdI), and zeta potential values as 37.12 ± 1.23 nm, 0.377 ± 0.007, and -36.94 ± 0.36 mV, respectively. The sphere-shaped morphology of CEO and TTO-loaded nanoliposomes was confirmed by a scanning electron microscope (SEM). The existence of characteristic functional bands in all tested counterparts was demonstrated by attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy. Compared to TTO-loaded nanoliposomes, the CEO-loaded nanoliposomes exhibited a maximum entrapment efficacy of 91.57 ± 2.5%. The CEO-loaded nanoliposome fraction, prepared using 1.5 µL/mL concentration, showed the highest MGI of 98.4 ± 0.87% tested against T. rubrum strains compared to the rest of the formulations.

Effects of UV and UV-vis Irradiation on the Production of Microalgae and Macroalgae: New Alternatives to Produce Photobioprotectors and Biomedical Compounds.

In the last decade, algae applications have generated considerable interest among research organizations and industrial sectors. Bioactive compounds, such as carotenoids, and Mycosporine-like amino acids (MAAs) derived from microalgae may play a vital role in the bio and non-bio sectors. Currently, commercial sunscreens contain chemicals such as oxybenzone and octinoxate, which have harmful effects on the environment and human health; while microalgae-based sunscreens emerge as an eco-friendly alternative to provide photo protector agents against solar radiation. Algae-based exploration ranges from staple foods to pharmaceuticals, cosmetics, and biomedical applications. This review aims to identify the effects of UV and UV-vis irradiation on the production of microalgae bioactive compounds through the assistance of different techniques and extraction methods for biomass characterization. The efficiency and results focus on the production of a blocking agent that does not damage the aquifer, being beneficial for health and possible biomedical applications.

Microalgae Bioactive Compounds to Topical Applications Products-A Review.

Microalgae are complex photosynthetic organisms found in marine and freshwater environments that produce valuable metabolites. Microalgae-derived metabolites have gained remarkable attention in different industrial biotechnological processes and pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries due to their multiple properties, including antioxidant, anti-aging, anti-cancer, phycoimmunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, and antimicrobial activities. These properties are recognized as promising components for state-of-the-art cosmetics and cosmeceutical formulations. Efforts are being made to develop natural, non-toxic, and environmentally friendly products that replace synthetic products. This review summarizes some potential cosmeceutical applications of microalgae-derived biomolecules, their mechanisms of action, and extraction methods.

Recent Advances in Prodigiosin as a Bioactive Compound in Nanocomposite Applications.

Bionanocomposites based on natural bioactive entities have gained importance due to their abundance; renewable and environmentally benign nature; and outstanding properties with applied perspective. Additionally, their formulation with biological molecules with antimicrobial, antioxidant, and anticancer activities has been produced nowadays. The present review details the state of the art and the importance of this pyrrolic compound produced by microorganisms, with interest towards Serratia marcescens, including production strategies at a laboratory level and scale-up to bioreactors. Promising results of its biological activity have been reported to date, and the advances and applications in bionanocomposites are the most recent strategy to potentiate and to obtain new carriers for the transport and controlled release of prodigiosin. Prodigiosin, a bioactive secondary metabolite, produced by Serratia marcescens, is an effective proapoptotic agent against bacterial and fungal strains as well as cancer cell lines. Furthermore, this molecule presents antioxidant activity, which makes it ideal for treating wounds and promoting the general improvement of the immune system. Likewise, some of the characteristics of prodigiosin, such as hydrophobicity, limit its use for medical and biotechnological applications; however, this can be overcome by using it as a component of a bionanocomposite. This review focuses on the chemistry and the structure of the bionanocomposites currently developed using biorenewable resources. Moreover, the work illuminates recent developments in pyrrole-based bionanocomposites, with special insight to its application in the medical area.