Biofabricated nanomaterials in sustainable agriculture: insights, challenges and prospects.

One ever-evolving and ever-demanding critical human endeavour is the provision of food security for the growing world population. This can be done by adopting sustainable agriculture through horizontal (expanding the arable land area) and vertical (intensifying agriculture through sound technological approaches) interventions. Customized formulated nanomaterials have numerous advantages. With their specialized physico-chemical properties, some nanoparticulated materials improve the plant's natural development and stress tolerance and some others are good nanocarriers. Nanocarriers in agriculture often coat chemicals to form composites having utilities with crop productivity enhancement abilities, environmental management (such as ecotoxicity reduction ability) and biomedicines (such as the ability to control and target the release of useful nanoscale drugs). Ag, Fe, Zn, TiO2, ZnO, SiO2and MgO nanoparticles (NPs), often employed in advanced agriculture, are covered here. Some NPs used for various extended purposes in modern farming practices, including disease diagnostics and seed treatment are also covered. Thus, nanotechnology has revolutionized agrotechnology, which holds promise to transform agricultural (ecosystems as a whole to ensure food security in the future. Considering the available literature, this article further probes the emergent regulatory issues governing the synthesis and use of nanomaterials in the agriculture sector. If applied responsibly, nanomaterials could help improve soil health. This article provides an overview of the nanomaterials used in the distribution of biomolecules, to aid in devising a safer and eco-friendly sustainable agriculture strategy. Through this, agri-systems that depend on advanced farming practices might function more effectively and enhance agri-productivity to meet the food demand of the rising world population.

Nanoadjuvants: Promising Bioinspired and Biomimetic Approaches in Vaccine Innovation.

Adjuvants are the important part of vaccine manufacturing as they elicit the vaccination effect and enhance the durability of the immune response through controlled release. In light of this, nanoadjuvants have shown unique broad spectrum advantages. As nanoparticles (NPs) based vaccines are fast-acting and better in terms of safety and usability parameters as compared to traditional vaccines, they have attracted the attention of researchers. A vaccine nanocarrier is another interesting and promising area for the development of next-generation vaccines for prophylaxis. This review looks at the various nanoadjuvants and their structure-function relationships. It compiles the state-of-art literature on numerous nanoadjuvants to help domain researchers orient their understanding and extend their endeavors in vaccines research and development.

Food and fruit waste valorisation for pectin recovery: Recent process technologies and future prospects.

Pectin possesses a dual property of resistance and flexibility and thus has diverse commercial value which has generated research interest on this versatile biopolymer. Formulated products using pectin could be useful in food, pharma, foam, plasticiser and paper substitute industries. Pectin is structurally tailor-made for greater bioactivity and diverse applications. Sustainable biorefinery leaves greener footprints while producing high-value bioproducts like pectin. The essential oils and polyphenols obtained as byproducts from a pectin-based biorefinery are useful in cosmetics, toiletries and fragrance industries. Pectin can be extracted from organic sources following eco-friendly strategies, and the extraction techniques, structural alterations and the applications are continually being upgraded and standardized. Pectin has great applications in diverse areas, and its green synthesis is a welcome development. In future, growing industrial application of pectin is anticipated as research orients on biopolymers, biotechnologies and renewable source-based processes. As the world is gradually adopting greener strategies in sync with the global sustainable development goal, active involvement of policy makers and public participation are prime. Governance and policy framing are essential in the transition of the world economy towards circularity since green circular bioeconomy is ill-understood among the public in general and within the administrative circles in particular. Concerted efforts by researchers, investors, innovators, and policy and decision makers to integrate biorefinery technologies as loops within loop of biological structures and bioprocesses is suggested. The review focusses on generation of the different nature of food wastes including fruits and vegetables with cauterization of their components. It discusses the innovative extraction and biotransformation approaches for these waste conversions into value-added products at cost-effective and eco-friendly way. This article compiles numerous effective and efficient and green way pectin extraction techniques with their advantages with varying success in an integrated manner.

Environmental remediation using metals and inorganic and organic materials: a review.

In recent times, environmental pollution has been an alarming concern. This is increasing day-in-and-day-out, especially in the Asia-Pacific region due to the increasing population, urbanization, industrialization and inappropriate waste management measures. Pollution abatement is the need of the hour to sustain the biosphere in general and the human life in particular. A range of physical, chemical and biological strategies are commonly employed to remove pollutants from the contained water, soil and air. Physical, chemical or physicochemical remediation processes are commonly employed owing to their high efficiency, stability, recyclable property and low procurement cost as compared to metals, inorganic and organic materials. Materials of the later type include biocomposites, thin films, modified (bio)polymers, nanoparticles, nanofilters, sorbent like activated charcoal, and carbon nanotubes and nanosensors. Remediation mechanism largely follows sorption, degradation, oxidation, reduction, catalytic conversion, detection and microbial toxicity principles. This review details the mechanisms of action by these various remediating entities, their successful applications in pollution abatement, drawbacks and future prospects.HighlightsEnvironmental remediation using metals, inorganic and organic materials are discussed extensively.Major remediating approaches, viz., physical, physicochemical and chemical are elaborated citing latest references.The significance of biocomposites, biopolymers, polymers, thin films, nanoparticles, nanofilters, nanosensors and sorbents in remediation are highlighted.Pollutant removal from water, air and soil has been precisely discussed.A note on drawbacks, improvement and future prospects of remediating agents is presented.