Abstract

     Wastewater from pharmaceutical industries contains different antibiotics and other effluents that directly affect the environment. For the degradation of antibiotics, nanotechnology is an emerging field in research that majorly focuses on molecules and atoms. Nanoparticles are fine micro-particles with more than one dimension from a size of 1–100 nm. The synthesized nanoparticles can directly be used for the process of degradation of antibiotics in wastewater. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles are majorly used among nanoparticles due to their small surface area and particle size. There are various physical, chemical and conventional (biological) methods for synthesizing titanium dioxide nanoparticles. Green synthesis is an environmentally friendly, less expensive and harmless approach, and these methods are much more efficient than any other physical-chemical means. Titanium dioxide nanoparticles are used for different purposes. In food products, these nanoparticles act as photocatalysts and are also used as a coating material in food packaging. Electrochemical biosensors are combined with titanium dioxide nanoparticles for developing nano sheet matrices. Furthermore, this review describes the usage of biological components (plants, microorganisms like fungi and bacteria) to synthesize titanium dioxide nanoparticles. The present review also focuses on applying synthesized titanium dioxide nanoparticles in various drug delivery systems and other bioactivities.

Introduction

     Water is one of the important components of life used in the domestic, industrial, and agricultural sectors. The increase in consumption leads to an increase in the toxicity of pollutants inside water. The concentrations of emerging pollutants like pharmaceutical compounds have increased [1]. Various types of pharmaceutical compounds are observed in the aqueous environment, including antibiotics. These compounds reach the aquatic habitat through hospital effluents, the pharmaceutical industry and human livestock. The consumption of antibiotics has increased, and the concentration increases inside the aquatic environment, leading to the development of antibiotic-resistant bacteria [2,3].

     To remove antibiotics from wastewater, the traditional sewage treatment method is not appropriate and is not much effective in removing the residuals of antibiotics. Nanoparticles can be used as a photocatalyst for the degradation of antibiotics and other organic pollutants [4]. Nanotechnology is defined as synthesizing and developing various nanomaterials by manipulating the matter at the nanoscale [5]. Nanomaterials are a bridge between molecular material and bulk material. They have a size range of 1–100 nm due to their different shapes, sizes, large surface area, and possess high reactivity [6]. This has become an emerging field in science in the last few years due to its wide range of applications [7]. Because of its small size, the effect can be seen in the physical, optical, chemical properties, melting point, and dielectric constant of various nanoparticles [8].

Conclusion

     The interest in green synthesis is due to its advantages of being innocuous to the environment. Different parts of plants are used for synthesis purposes, and their characterization using various techniques helps form TiO2 NPs of varied shapes and sizes. The green synthesis of TiO2 NPs can be used in biomedical, and the delivery of drugs and antibiotics in wastewater of pharmaceutical industries can be degraded using nanoparticles. Because of the less use of precursors, TiO2 is widely used to remove microbes from water surfaces. The nanoparticles inhibit the growth of microbes and are used in wound dressing. Moreover, nanoparticles synthesized using the green routes are more effective than chemical or physical means.

Abstract

1. Introduction

2. Fundamentals of nanotechnology

3. The role of nanotechnology in achieving food security

4. Nanotubes in food and agriculture

5. Nanosensors in food and agriculture

6. The challenges of nanotechnology in food and agriculture system

7. Conclusions

References

Abstract

     Ensuring food security in developing countries is highly challenging due to low productivity of the agriculture sector, degradation of natural resources, high post farming losses, less or no value addition, and high population growth. Researchers are striving to adopt newer technologies to enhance supply to narrow the food demand gap. Nanotechnology is one of the promising technologies that could improve agricultural productivity via nano fertilizers, use of efficient herbicides and pesticides, soil feature regulation, wastewater management, and pathogen detection. It is equally beneficial for industrial food processing with enhanced food production with excellent market value, elevated nutritional and sensing property, improved safety, and better antimicrobial protection. Nanotechnology can also reduce post-farming losses by increasing the shelf life with the aid of nanoparticles. However, further investigation is required to solve the safety and health risks associated with the technology.

Introduction

     The foremost universal challenge on our planet is the question of establishing food security for a rapidly increasing population in the world. Predictions show that food demand is likely to rise from 59 to 98% for the world population reaching 9 billion by 2050 (Duro et al., 2020). Despite an increase of the world population particularly in developing countries, the global food supply interrupted by the expenditure of bio-resources for production of energy, manufacturing chemicals, high post farming loss, less value addition, inefficient distribution and marketing systems, and other factors (Barrett, 2021; Sekhon, 2014). Farmers throughout the world will focus on using new innovations and technologies for enhancing the production of crops through intensive and extensive agriculture. The current efforts further boosted through the use of nano-modified stimulants and precision farming. Agricultural efficiency, soil improvement, secure water use, distribution of food in stores, and its quality are basic factors of securing food that may be improved via advances in nanotechnology research (Ashraf et al., 2021; Sastry et al., 2011).

     Newer technology that will increase the production and reduce food wastage is important to maintain sustainable living standards of the nation and improve food security. Nanotechnology can provide a path for producing foods with outstanding quality in highly improved workable form along with induction of nutrients bioavailability. Many research investigations are focusing on increasing the application of nanotechnology for the production of crop and food processing (Abobatta, 2018; Axelos and Van De Voorde, 2017; Dasgupta et al., 2015; Peters et al., 2016). Increment in articles, intellectual property, and patents in nano-agriculture-based food with fresh research tendencies in the processing of food, nutraceutical distribution, packing, quality control, and serviceable food is a highly expanding field in nanotechnology research (Dasgupta et al., 2015).

Conclusions

     Nanotechnology is a newly emerging, but highly expanding technology in many fields related to human activities and benefits worldwide. Its fascinating phenomena have been witnessed through several research findings that the nanoparticles and nanostructure improve various properties due to small size, larger surface area, and highly catalytic nature. Nanotechnology is crucial in achieving food security, especially in the agriculture sector. It can improve crop production by effective microbial, pest, and weed control with high economic value, security, and safety. It also plays a key role in food processing, food modification, stability, sensing, prolonged shelf life, minimized food losses, and provide safe food. Nanotechnology also minimizes post-harvest losses with better stability, safety, and packaging materials. Nanoparticles like Ag, Au, Zn, TiO2, ZnO, SiO2, and MgO commonly used in food processing, may also induce health risks due to easy penetration through the cell for adverse reactions within various humans, and animal organs as well as parts of plants. Such risks due to nanoparticles or nanocomposite could be controlled in future research via using greener synthesis and searching for easy and cheaper protocols for degradation and removal of existing nanomaterial from the sites of attack.

Strategies for biotechnology must take account of opportunities for research, innovation and business growth. At a regional level, public-private collaborations provide potential for such growth and the creation of centres of excellence. By considering recent progress in areas such as genomics, healthcare diagnostics, synthetic biology, gene editing and bio-digital technologies, opportunities for smart, strategic and specialised investment are discussed. These opportunities often involve convergent or disruptive technologies, combining for example elements of pharma-science, molecular biology, bioinformatics and novel device development to enhance biotechnology and the life sciences. Analytical applications use novel devices in mobile health, predictive diagnostics and stratified medicine. Synthetic biology provides opportunities for new product development and increased efficiency for existing processes. Successful centres of excellence should promote publicprivate business partnerships, clustering and global collaborations based on excellence, smart strategies and innovation if they are to remain sustainable in the longer term.

Introduction

The biotechnology sector operates on an increasingly global basis, with the 25 biggest drug and biotech companies coming from eight different countries (Morrison & Lhäteenmäki 2017; NASDAQ Biotech Index, 2018). The sector has however, undergone considerable consolidation, including the $130 Bn merger of Dow Chemical with Du Pont and Chem China’s bid of $43 Bn for Syngenta, leading to a smaller number of truly global players. Major revenue earners include Abvie’s Humira monoclonal antibody for arthritis, psoriasis, and Crohn’s disease therapy ($15.9 Bn), Gilead’s Harvoni small molecule for hepatitis C antiviral therapy ($13.8 Bn) and Celgene’s Revlimid for multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma ($6.9 Bn; 1, illustrated in Fig. 1). Approximately 26% of revenue sales are currently spent on research and development, in what is increasingly an expensive escalating biotechnological arms race, with upwards of 40% of venture capital centred on just two areas: Boston Bay and San Francisco (Morrison & Lhäteenmäki, 2017). Amongst European companies, one of the biggest recent changes has seen Bayer bid $66 Bn for Monsanto, to create a global entity dedicated to innovation in healthcare, including pharmaceuticals, consumer & animal health and agriculture. Digital farming combining big data with the internet of things, is one example of how Bayer will meet the challenges posed by world population increasing to 10 Bn by 2050. Farmland per capita will decline by 17% and climate change is forecast to reduce yields by a further 17%. This means an effective 60% productivity increase will be necessary to meet the needs of 10 Bn global citizens (Gartland & Gartland 2016; Food & Agriculture Organisation, 2016). Sustainably producing more food with fewer inputs will require precision data on needs and opportunities for growers. Bayer hope to provide an improved quality of life by combining aspects of their current crop protection portfolio with seed, trait and climate change platforms from Monsanto (Bayer, 2017). At a national level, EU28’s largest biotechnology products pipeline comes from the UK, where €34.66 Bn was generated from pharma, medtech and biotechnology products in 2015 (PWC, 2017). This activity provides 482,000 UK jobs, €9.81 Bn tax take and equates to a Gross Value Added of €118,500 per employee, being the highest in Europe. What then are the areas of biotechnology where opportunities exist for smart, specialized strategies to emerge and be successful in research and innovation, including economic and future employment prospects?

The use of conventional extraction method particularly chromatography-based method involves complex scale-up, batch operation, low capability in process integration, laborious processing cycles, require high energy input and high cost (9). On the other hand, the removal of cell debris by filtration or centrifugation may be challenging when processing high biomass load due to heterogeneous distribution of particle size and high viscosity (10). On top of that, a higher number of operational steps would incur higher overall cost owing to the loss of some amount of target compound in each processing stage. In response to the increasing market demand of biotechnological products, a more versatile and economical bioseparation process which can offer higher process throughput, shorter processing time and scalability is necessary to cope with the current ratelimiting downstream processes (11). However, it should be noted that the selection of an appropriate separation method is crucial in the downstream processing. Otherwise, inappropriate extraction technique could negatively affect the biofunctionality of target molecules and would therefore limit their application to a great extent (12). Alternatively, ATPS exhibits application potential with great technical and economic advantages in downstream processing. Several discrete stages which involve separation, concentration into smaller volume and purification can be reduced and substituted by ATPS, allowing the overall recovery process become more energy-efficient and cost-effective (3). Compared to the conventional method, the use of ATPS for bioseparation offers many advantages (2). These include simple process operation, rapid separation, high selectivity, low energy consumption and low cost (3,8,13e16). ATPS has also been able to offer a biocompatible environment for the isolation of biotechnological products due to the presence of high water content in both phases (1,17). The extremely low interfacial tension of this system (between 0.0001 and 0.1 dyne/cm) creates high interfacial contact area of the dispersed phases, which in turn, enhances the efficiency of the mass transfer (1). Chemical cost is considered one of the dominant cost factors for large-scale bioseparation process. The use of inexpensive phase components in ATPS would make the whole downstream processing more economical. Problem of downstream pollution may also be avoided by recycling the ATPS phase components (2). Extraction using ATPS is relatively rapid and the processing capacity of this technological simple technique is quite high. Due to the simplicity and reliability of scaling-up approach, the extent of ATPS extraction to industrial scale application is feasible and practical (8,11,13).

Influence of parameters on the partitioning behavior of ATPS

The selective distribution of the compounds to be separated between the two phases serves as the basis of partitioning in ATPS. In ATPS, the partition profile of the solutes depends on different physicochemical interactions between the biomaterial and the phase forming chemicals (18). Interactions such as van der Waals’ forces, hydrogen bond, electrostatic interactions, steric effects, hydrophobicity, biospecific affinity interactions as well as conformational effects between the phase components and the substances contribute to the partitioning of the particular substance (1). To achieve an effective bioseparation process, the partitioning behaviour of biomolecule in ATPS can be influenced by changing some of the dominating factors such as molecular weights and size of polymers, type and composition of phase component, type of ions in the system, the addition of neutral salts like NaCl, tie line length (TLL), system temperature and pH (3,5,13).

The enzyme catalase is known to catalyse the breakdown of hydrogen peroxide into oxygen and water. Hydrogen peroxide metabolism is mainly regulated by this enzyme. Catalase is a common enzyme found in nearly all living organisms. It has one of the highest turnovers of all enzymes as it has the capacity to decompose more than one million molecules of hydrogen peroxide, per molecule of enzyme. Catalase has been used as an important enzyme in many biotechnological areas including bioremediation. This paper gives a review of its use and application in the field of bioremediation as an indicator of hydrocarbon degradation in soil (an important aspect in bioremediation of crude oil pollution), as a provider of oxygen in aerobic bioremediation process and in the removal of H2O2 from bleaching industry effluent and also its potential use in the food industry.

Introduction

Catalase (EC 1.11.1.6) enzyme is an oxidoreductase enzyme as it plays a crucial role in quenching the reactive oxygen species (ROS), i.e. hydrogen peroxide, often produced as a by-product of aerobic respiration (Beers and Sizer., 1952). Hence it acts as an antioxidant and protects the cell against oxidative stress (Abbott et al., 2009, Kirkman et al., 1987). The enzyme is found in a wide range of aerobic and anaerobic organisms. Catalase has one of the highest turnover number as one molecule of enzyme hydrolysing over a million molecules of the substrate i.e. hydrogen peroxide per second. New applications for catalases are constantly emerging thanks to their high turnover number (Lončar and Fraaije 2015, Zamocky et al., 1999), distinct evolutionary origin, reasonably simple (Alptekin et al. 2008) and well-defined reaction mechanisms (Baeza et al., 2013). The basic mechanism of the working of this enzyme involves the breakdown and subsequent breakdown of the reactive oxygen specie i.e. hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) into oxygen and water thus relieving the oxidative stress caused by this substrate as depicted in the following reaction (Barynin et al., 2001). Catalase is a tetramer of four polypeptide chains, each over 500 amino acids long. It contains four porphyrin heme (iron) groups that allow the enzyme to react with the hydrogen peroxide. Catalase has a fairly broad range of working from 4-11 optimum pH (Beers, 1961; Calera et al., 2000; Correia et al., 1994; Diaz et al., 2012). Catalase is usually located in a cellular, bipolar environment organelle called the peroxisome (Fita et al., 1985). As this enzyme is found in mainly all organisms (aerobic and anaerobic), it has been exploited in many applications including food processing, textile, paper, pharmaceutical industry and also in the field of bioremediation as one of the upcoming areas of its application (Gromada et al., 1997; Hussein 2012; . Beers et al., 1952; Youn et al 1995).This paper intends to give an account of how this enzyme has been exploited in the process of bioremediation in order to clean the environment of unwanted substances.

Parthenium hysterophorus L. (family Asteraceae) is a poisonous, pernicious and aggressive weed. It is known to badly affect crop production, biodiversity, animal husbandry, human health and even ecosystem integrity (Rao, 1956; Kohli and Batish, 1994). It has some water soluble allelopathic chemicals such as phenolic acids and Parthenin—a sesquiterpene lactone of pseudoguanolide nature in various parts of the weed (Picman and Picman, 1984). It can be used as a soil supplement after removal of harmful allelochemicals. Adoption of vermicomposting technology constitutes an essential component of organic farming. Large number of weed plants that grow at an alarming rate and spread very fast in the cultivated lands, pastures, grasslands and forests are a good source of organic matter (Sharma et al., 2004). Vermicompost is a sustainable source of macro and micro nutrients and plant-growth regulating materials (humic acids and plant growth regulators like auxins, gibberellins and cytokinins) which are responsible for increased plant growth and yield of many crops (Krishnamoorthy and Vajrabhiah, 1986; Senesi et al. 1992; Atiyeh et al. 2000; Atiyeh et al. 2002). Effect of nanoparticles on crop plants is an emerging area of research that needs to be meticulously explored. In the recent past, engineered nanoparticles have received particular attention as potential candidates for increasing crop yield (Scrinis and Lyons, 2007; Barik et al. 2008; Arora et al. 2012). Some researchers reported the influences of chemically synthesized nano particles (gold, silver and iron) on crops by foliar spray. They concluded that nano particles treated crops showed a considerable increase in chlorophyll, protein, ascorbic acid, pod and grain weight (An et al. 2008; Roghayyeh et al. 2010; Nair et al. 2010). The effects of phyto mediated nanoparticles on crops have not been reported. In green chemistry method, the use of plants and microbes for the synthesis of metal oxide nanoparticles did attract the attention of researchers for having a rapid, in expensive, ecofriendly and a one-step method for the biosynthesis process (Kowshik et al., 2003).