PLANT-BASED GREEN NANOTECHNOLOGY: ADVANCES IN THE BIOSYNTHESIS, CHARACTERIZATION, AND BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS OF NANOMATERIALS

Abstract

Nanotechnology has developed very rapidly and has had a great impact on a number of sciences, in particular biomedicine, agriculture and environmental remediation. The production of nanomaterials by traditional techniques relies on physical and chemical procedures that are efficient but use toxic reducing agents, produce toxic by-products and need large amount of energy. Over the last few years, plant-based green nanotechnology has been identified as a revolutionary, eco-friendly and sustainable alternative to these traditional techniques. Plant extracts including flavonoids, polyphenols, terpenoids, and alkaloids exhibit an extensive phytochemical diversity, which enables scientists to efficiently reduce metal ions and stabilize the generated nanoparticles simultaneously through an environmentally friendly process. This peer-reviewed article reviews comprehensively the recent progress in the biosynthesis of plant-mediated nanomaterials, especially metallic and metal oxide nanoparticles including silver, gold, copper and zinc oxide. It also gives detailed information on the essential techniques used to characterize nanoparticles in terms of their shape, size and structure such as UV-Vis, FTIR, XRD and SEM. Note that this review extensively discusses the biological uses of these biogenic nanoparticles with special focus on their potential antimicrobial, anticancer, antioxidant and targeted drug delivery capabilities. This paper reveals the revolutionary potential of plant-based green nanotechnology in modern science by integrating fundamental mechanisms and practical applications and addressing the current challenges in scalability and standardization.