Green Nanotechnology: Biomimetic Synthesis of Metal Nanoparticles Using Plants and Their Application in Agriculture and Forestry

Abstract

Biomimetic nanotechnology is an outstanding investigation area at the meeting place of life sciences with physics and engineering. It is an uninterrupted emerging field that deals with knowledge transfer from biology to nanotechnology. Biomimetic nanotechnology is a scope that has the potential to support extensively successful mastering of major global challenges and solve the problems. Metallic nanoparticles are being utilized in every phase of science along with engineering, including agriculture fields, and are still charming the scientists to explore new dimensions for their respective worth, which is generally credited to their corresponding small sizes. The up-and-coming researches have proven their antimicrobial significance. The present chapter is devoted to the possibility of metal nanoparticle synthesis using plant extracts and microorganisms. This approach has been actively pursued in recent years as an alternative, efficient, low-cost, and environmentally safe technique for producing nanoparticles with specified properties. The main attention is on the role of the natural plant biomolecules involved in the bioreduction of metal salts during the nanoparticle synthesis. Moreover, attempts to apply nanotechnology in agriculture began with the growing realization that conventional agriculture technologies would neither be able to grow productivity any further nor restore ecosystems damaged by existing technologies back to their pristine situation, in particular because the long-term effects of farming with “miracle seeds,” in conjunction with pesticides, irrigation, and fertilizers, have been questioned both at the scientific and policy levels and must be steadily phased out. Nanotechnology in agricultural science has gained momentum in the past decade with a plenty of public funding, but the pace of growth is modest, even though many disciplines come under the umbrella of agriculture. This could be credited to a unique nature of farm production, which functions as an open system whereby energy and material are swapped freely; the scale of request of input materials is gigantic in contrast with industrial metal nano-products; an absence of control over the input nanomaterials in contrast with industrial nano-products (e.g., the cell phone) and because their fate has to be conceived on the geosphere (pedosphere), hydrosphere, biosphere, and atmosphere continuum; the time delay of emerging technologies reaching the farmers’ field, specifically given that many emerging economies are reluctant to spend on innovation; and the lack of foresight subsequent from agricultural education not having attracted an enough number of clear minds the world over, whereas personnel from kindred disciplines might absence an understanding of agricultural production methods. If these issues are taken care of, nanotechnological impact in farming has bright views for improving the efficiency of nutrient use through nano-formulations of fertilizers, breaking yield obstacles through bionanotechnology, surveillance, and control of “pests and diseases,” apprehension mechanisms of host-parasite interactions at the cellular and molecular levels, growth of new-generation pesticides and their carriers, packaging and preservation of foodstuff and food additives, strengthening of natural fibers, removal of contaminants from water and soil, improving the shelf life of flowers and vegetables, clay-based nanoresources for reclamation of salt-affected soils, precision water management, and stabilization of erosion-prone surfaces to name a few.