Agrifood Nanotechnology: A Tiny Revolution in Food and Agriculture

Let us make an in-depth study of the agrifood nanotechnology. The below given article will help you to learn about the following things:- 1. Introduction to Agrifood Nanotechnology 2. Possible Applications in the Food Industry 3. Possible Applications in Agriculture 4. Nanobiotechnology for Animal Health 5. Post-Harvest Management and Food Biotechnology and 6. Preventing Environmental Damage.

Introduction to Agrifood Nanotechnology:

Nanotechnology refers to the control of mat­ter at an atomic or molecular scale of between 1 and 100 nm. The properties of materials at this scale can be very different from conven­tional materials. This is due to Nano-materials having increased relative surface area and to the quantum effects that can begin to domi­nate the behaviour of matter at the Nano scale.

These factors can change or enhance prop­erties, such as strength, reactivity and elec­trical characteristics. Nanotechnologies have opened up new ways for studying individual molecules and the specific intra- and inter-molecular interactions in which they partici­pate. It has opened windows to understand and replicate or improve the complexity and functionality of biological materials, enabling the type of control of such materials that nature has.

All organisms represent a consolidation of various Nano scale-size objects. Atoms and molecules combine to form dynamic struc­ture and systems that are the building blocks of every organism’s existence. For humans, cell membranes, hormones, and DNA are examples of vital structures that measure in the nanometer range. In fact, every living organ­ism on earth exists because of the presence and interaction of various nanostructures. Even food molecules such as carbohydrates, proteins and fats are the results of Nano scale level mergers between sugars, amino acids, and fatty acids.

Most of the current applications of nano­technology are in electronics, automation, super-materials, or life sciences such as pharmaceuticals and medicine. Among the nanotechnology consumer products to date, health and fitness products form the largest category, followed by electronics and com­puters category, as well as home and garden category.

Nano technologies are only used to a limited extent at the moment for achieving proper nutrition and a clean environment. Nevertheless, experts foresee opportunities in agriculture and the food industry. Novel agricultural and food security systems, dis­ease-treatment, delivery methods, sensors for pathogen detection, ecological protection, and education of the public and future work­force are examples of the important impact that nanotechnology could have on the sci­ence and engineering of agriculture and food systems.

Major areas in food industry that will prob­ably be significantly enhanced by nanotech­nology are development of new functional materials; micro- and Nano scale processing; product development; and design of meth­ods and instrumentation for food safety and biosecurity. Some of the benefits of nano­technology will be conveyed to the food sector through agriculture and agricultural research.

The development of new tools in molecular and cellular biology will result in significant advances in reproductive science and technology; conversion of agricultural and food wastes into energy and useful by-products through enzymatic Nano bioprocessing; and disease prevention and treat­ment plants and animals. New materials special characteristics at the Nano scale level, such as self-assembly and self-healing properties, or abilities for pathogen and con­taminant detection, could be breakthroughs in the agriculture and food industry of the near future.

Nanotechnologies are also ex­pected to prove useful in the environmental field for detecting and solving existing and preventing new problems. In the latter case, considerations other than environmental is­sues, such as cost-savings, are often the main reason for the development of new applica­tions. This increases their likelihood of suc­cess in the market because they combine they combine environmental benefits with other benefits.

Most applications will only be completed in the medium-long term (5 to 20 years) or the long term (more than 20 years). Many of the envisaged applications have a counterpart in the medical field. The present review focuses on current nanotechnology research that is applicable to agriculture and food technology and projects that the future will bring to the newly emerging field of Agrifood Nanotech­nology (Fig. 12.1).

Possible Applications in the Food Industry:

Food undergoes a variety of post-harvest and processing-induced modifications that affect its biological and biochemical makeup, so nanotechnology developments in the fields of biology and biochemistry could eventu­ally also influence the food industry. Ideally, systems with structural features in the nano­meter length range could affect aspects from food safety to molecular synthesis.

Following are some of the Nano scale-sized structures that are uniquely relevant to the food indus­try, the different food manufacturing tech­niques that could benefit from nanotechnol­ogy and nanotechnology’s applicability to the formulation and storage of food.

As it applies to the food industry, nanotech­nology involves using biological molecules such as sugars or proteins as target-recogni­tion groups for nanostructures that could be used, for example, as biosensors on foods. Such biosensors could serve as detectors of food pathogens and other contaminants and as devices to track food products.

Nanotech­nology may also be useful in encapsulation systems for protection against environmen­tal factors. In addition, it can be used in the design of food ingredients such as flavours and antioxidants. The goal is to improve the functionality of such ingredients while mini­mizing their concentration. As the infusion of novel ingredients into foods gains popularity, greater exploration of delivery and controlled-release systems for nutraceuticals will occur.

Although nanotechnology can potentially be useful in all areas of food production and processing many of the methods are either too expensive or too impractical to imple­ment on a commercial scale. For this reason, Nano scale techniques are most cost-effective in the following areas of the food industry: development of new functional materials, food formulations, food processing at micro scale and Nano scale levels, product devel­opment, and storage. The part of review focuses on the Nano scale applications within these areas that have a greater chance of commercial viability now and in the near future.

Nanodispersions and Nanocapsules:

As the fundamental components of foods, functional ingredients such as vitamins, antimicrobials, antioxidants, flavourings, and preservatives come in various molecular and physical forms. Because they are rarely used in their purest form, functional ingredients are usually part of a delivery system.

A deliv­ery system has numerous functions, only one of which is to transport a functional ingre­dient to its desired site. Besides being com­patible with food product attributes such as taste, texture and shelf life, other functions of a delivery system include protecting an ingredient from chemical or biological degra­dation, such as oxidation, and controlling the functional ingredients rate of release under specific environmental conditions.

Because they can effectively perform all these tasks, Nano dispersions and Nano capsules are ideal mechanisms for delivery of functional ingre­dients. These types of nanostructures include association colloids, Nano emulsions, and bio- polymeric nanoparticles.

Association Colloids:

Surfactant micelles, vesicles, bilayers, reverse micelles, and liquid crystals are all examples of association colloids. A colloid is a stable system of a substance containing small par­ticles dispersed throughout. An association colloid is a colloid whose particles are made up of even smaller molecules.

Used for many years to deliver polar, nonpolar, and amphiphilic functional ingredients, association colloids range in size from 5 nm to 100 nm and are usually transparent solutions. The major disadvantages to association colloids are that they may compromise the flavour of the ingredients and can spontaneously disso­ciate if diluted.

Nanoemulsions:

An emulsion is a mixture of two or more liq­uids (such as oil and water) that do not eas­ily combine. Therefore, a Nano emulsion is an emulsion in which the diameters of the dispersed droplets measure 500 nm or less. Nano emulsions can encapsulate functional ingredients within their droplets, which can facilitate a reduction in chemical degrada­tion.

In fact, different types of Nano emulsions with more-complex properties—such as nanostructured multiple emulsions or nano­structure multilayer emulsions—offer multi­ple encapsulating abilities from a single deliv­ery system that can carry several functional components. In structures such as these, a functional component encased within one component of a multiple emulsion system could be released in response to a specific en­vironmental trigger.

Biopolymeric Nanoparticles:

Food-grade biopolymers such as proteins or polysaccharides can be used to produce nanometer-sized particles. Using aggregative (net attraction) or segregative (net repulsion) interactions, a single biopolymer separates into smaller nanoparticles. The nanoparticles can then be used to encapsulate functional in­gredients and release them in response to distinct environmental triggers. One of the most common components of many biodegradable bio polymeric nanoparticles is polylactic acid (PLA).

Widely available from a number of manufacturers, PLA is often used to encapsu­late and deliver drugs, vaccines, and proteins, but it has limitations: it is quickly removed from the bloodstream, remaining isolated in the liver and kidneys. Because its purpose as nanoparticle is to deliver active components to other areas of the body, PLA needs an asso­ciative compound such as polyethylene glycol to be successful in this regard.

Nanolaminates:

Besides Nano dispersions and Nano capsules, another Nano scale technique is commercially viable for the food industry: Nano laminates. Consisting of two or more layers of material with nanometer dimensions, a Nano laminate is an extremely thin food-grade film (1-100 nm/layer) that has physically bonded or chemically bonded dimensions. Because of its advantages in the preparation of edible films, a Nano laminate has a number of impor­tant food-industry applications.

Edible films are present on a wide variety of foods: fruits, vegetables, meats, chocolate, candies, baked goods, and French fries. Such films protect foods from moisture, lipids, and gases, or they can improve the textural properties of foods and serve as carriers of colors, flavours, antioxidants, nutrients, and antimicrobials.

Currently, edible Nano laminates are con­structed from polysaccharides, proteins, and lipids. Although polysaccharide and protein- based films are good barriers against oxygen and carbon dioxide, they are poor at protect­ing against moisture. On the other hand, lip- id-based Nano laminates are good at protect­ing food from moisture, but they offer limited resistance to gases and have poor mechanical strength.

Because neither polysaccharides, proteins, nor lipids provide all of the desired properties in an edible coating, researchers are trying to identify additives that can improve them, such as polyols. For now, coating foods with Nano laminates involves either dipping them into a series of solutions containing substances that would adsorb to a foods surface or spraying substances onto the food surface.

While there are various methods that can cause adsorption, it is commonly a result of an electrostatic attraction between substanc­es that have opposite charges. The degree of a substance’s adsorption depends on the nature of the food’s surface as well as the nature of the adsorbing substance.

Different adsorb­ing substances can constitute different layers of a Nano laminate; examples are polyelectrolytes (proteins and polysaccharides), charged lipids, and colloidal particles. Consequently, different Nano laminates could include vari­ous functional agents such as antimicrobials, anti-browning agents, antioxidants, enzymes, flavours, and colours.

Nanofibers and Nanotubes:

Two applications of nanotechnology that are in the early stages of having an impact on the food industry are Nano fibers and nanotubes. Because Nano fibers are usually not composed of food-grade substances, they have only a few potential applications in the food industry. Produced by a manufacturing technique us­ing electrostatic force, Nano fibers have small diameters ranging in size from 10 nm to 1,000 nm, which makes them ideal for serving as a platform for bacterial cultures.

In addition, Nano fibers could also serve as the structural matrix for artificial foods and environmen­tally friendly food-packaging material. As advances continue in the area of producing Nano fibers from food-grade materials, their use will likely increase. As with Nano fibers, the use of nanotubes has predominantly been for non-food applications.

Carbon nanotubes are popularly used as low-resistance conductors and catalytic reaction vessels. Under appropriate environ­mental conditions, however, certain globular milk proteins can self-assemble into similarly structured nanotubes.Thus, nanotechnologies will be used to improve the health value, safety, taste and attractiveness of foods.

Additionally, Nano delivery systems can ensure that biologically active substances that occur naturally in food or that are added in increased concentrations are not broken down prematurely but reach the right places in the body and remain available at the right concentrations.

The same systems can also be used to deliver flavourings. For example, it is conceivable that tar­geted delivery of salt could enable a product’s salt level to be considerably reduced but that it would still taste as if the same amount of salt had been added. Reduced salt intake can be beneficial to health. The number of func­tional foodstuff delivery systems is expected to increase sharply over the next few years.

The Helmut Kaiser Consultancy has pub­lished (2004) a study entitled ‘Nano food’ on worldwide developments in nanotechnology in the food industry. The report suggests that more than 180 applications are in various stages of development. They estimate that the value of the application of nanotechnology in food is expected to surge to US$ 20.4 billion in 2015.

More than 600 companies worldwide are involved in this area and that the world leaders are the USA, followed by Japan and China. It is estimated that by 2015 Asia—with more than 50 percent of the world popula­tion—will become the biggest market for the Nano food, with China in the leading posi­tion.

Possible Applications in Agriculture:

As we have discussed above, many benefits of nanotechnology development will be conveyed to the food sector through agriculture development. New materials with special characteristics at the Nano scale level, such as self-assembly and self-healing properties, or abilities for pathogen and contaminant de­tection, could be breakthroughs in the agri­culture. In this section we have described the influence of nanotechnology on agriculture science and have also discussed how to man­age far-reaching developments in this area.

Nanofabricated Gel-free Systems and High Throughput DNA Sequencing:

As a central process, DNA sequencing needs to be improved in terms of its throughput and accuracy. Nanofabrication technology will be critical towards this goal both in terms of improving existing methods as well as deliver­ing novel approaches for sequencing detection.

The scaling down in size of the current sequencing technology allows the process to be more parallel and multiplex. Research in Nano biotechnology is advancing towards the ability to sequence DNA in nanofabri­cated gel-free systems, which would allow for significantly more rapid DNA sequencing.

Coupled with powerful approaches such as association genetic analysis, DNA sequenc­ing data of the crop germplasm, including the cultivated crop gene pool and the wild relatives can potentially provide highly useful information about molecular markers asso­ciated with agronomically and economically important traits. Thus, nanotechnology can enhance the pace of progress in molecular marker-assisted breeding for crop improve­ment.

Crop Improvement:

Nanotechnology has also shown its ability in modifying the genetic constitution of the crop plants thereby helping in further im­provement of crop plants. Mutations—both natural and induced—have long since played an important role in crop improvement. In­stead of using certain chemical compounds like EMS, MMS and physical mutagen like X-ray, gamma ray etc. for conventional in­duced mutation studies, nanotechnology has showed a new dimension in mutation re­search.

In Thailand, Chiang Mai University’s Nuclear Physics Laboratory has come up with a new white-grained rice variety from a tra­ditional purple coloured rice variety called ‘Khao Kam’ through the usage of nanotech­nology.

The word ‘Kam’ means deep purple and the rice variety is known for its purple stem, leaves and grains. Using nanotechnol­ogy, the scientists changed the colour of the leaves and stems of Khao Kam from purple to green and the grain becomes whitish. The research involves drilling a Nano-sized hole through the wall and membrane of a rice cell in order to insert a nitrogen atom.

The hole is drilled using a particle beam (a stream of fast- moving particles, not unlike a lightning bolt) and the nitrogen atom is shot through the hole to stimulate rearrangement of the rice’s DNA. This newly derived organism through the change at the atomic level is designated as ‘Atomically Modified Organisms’ (AMOs).

Microchips and Expression Pro­filing:

One of the first nanotechnologies in the market is microchips for DNA or protein sequencing (bio-chips). Another technology under development concerns microfluidic biochips, also known as lab on-a-chip devices. They are all based on manipulation of minute bio-objects immersed in fluids, allowing on- chip biochemical processing (sampling, mix­ing, amplification, separation, detection and analysis).

The application area of biochips and microfluidic chips is very broad, ranging from high throughput screening, cell analy­sis, and drug discovery to portable devices for minimal-invasive therapy, precision surgery as well as drug delivery.

Microarray-based hybridization methods allow to simultaneously measuring the ex­pression level for thousands of genes; this is referred to as ‘expression profiling’. Such measurements contain information about many different aspects of gene regulation and function, and indeed this type of experi­ments has become a central tool in biological research.

The development of novel formats for sequence determination and patterns of genomic expression which can have signifi­cantly higher throughput than current tech­nologies is vital. Thousands of DNA or pro­tein molecules are arrayed on glass slides to create DNA chips and protein chips, respec­tively.

Recent developments in microarray technology use customized beads in place of glass slides. Overall, nanofabrication tech­niques can be used, for example, to pattern surface chemistry for a variety of biosensor and biomedical applications.

Three areas which exemplify this are:

(i) Determination of new genomic se­quences.

(ii) Scanning of genes for polymorphisms that might have an impact on phenotype.

(iii) Comprehensive survey of the pattern of gene(s) expression in organisms when exposed to biotic/abiotic stress.

The fundamental principle underlying the microarray technology has inspired research­ers to create many types of microarrays to answer scientific questions and discover new products.

DNA Microarrays:

DNA microarrays are being used to:

(i) Detect mutations in disease- related genes;

(ii) Monitor gene activity;

(iii) Identify genes important to crop productiv­ity; and

(iv) Improve screening for microbes used in bioremediation.

Gene sequence and mapping data mean little until we determine what those genes do—which is where protein arrays come in [43],

Protein Microarrays:

While going from DNA arrays to protein arrays is a logical step, it is by no means simple to accomplish. The structures and functions of proteins are much more complicated than that of DNA, and proteins are less stable than DNA. Each cell type contains thousands of different proteins, some of which are unique to that cell’s job. In addition, a cell’s protein profile varies with its health, age, and current and past environ­mental conditions.

Protein Microarrays are being used to:

(i) Discover protein biomarkers that indicate disease stages;

(ii) Assess potential efficacy and toxicity of pesticides (natural and synthetics);

(iii) Measure differential protein production across cell types and developmental stages, and in both healthy and diseased states;

(iv) Study the relationship between protein structure and function; and

(v) Evaluate bind­ing interactions between proteins and other molecules.

Plant Disease Diagnostics:

Diseases are one of the major factors limit­ing crop productivity. The problem with the disease management lies with the detection of the exact stage of prevention. Most of the times pesticides are applied as a precaution­ary manner leading to the residual toxicity and environmental hazards and, on the other hand, application of pesticides after the appearance of disease leads to some amount of crop losses.

Among the different diseases, the viral diseases are the most difficult to control, as one has to stop the spread of the disease by the vectors. But, once it starts showing its symptoms, pesticide application would not be of much use.

Therefore, detection of exact stage such as stage of viral DNA replication or the production of initial viral protein is the key to the success of control of diseases particularly viral diseases. Nano-based viral diagnostics, including multiplexed diagnos­tic kit development, have taken momentum in order to detect the exact strain of virus and stage of application of some therapeutic to stop the disease.

Detection and utilization of biomarkers that accurately indicate disease stages is also a new area of research. Measuring differential protein production in both healthy and dis­eased states leads to the identification of the development of several proteins during the infection cycle. These Nano-based diagnostic kits not only increase the speed of detection but also increase the power of the detection.

Nanobiotechnology for Animal Health:

Nano Vaccines:

Vaccination is one of the important methods of prevention of disease in advance by developing antibody against the particular patho­gen. Most of the vaccines are applied in a fluid form and generally injected in to blood­stream. These vaccines require cool tempera­ture to be stored and they also have limited life span within which they are to be utilized. These two limitations have prevented the util­ity of vaccines, particularly in the rural area where availability of electricity, fridge and in many cases veterinarians are uncertain.

Therefore, more robust and durable vaccines are the only solution for the successful eradi­cation of particular diseases. Many organisms, particularly microorgan­isms, have novel and interesting structures that could be exploited, for example, the lattice-type crystalline arrays of bacterial S-laters and bacterial spore coats both of which have protective properties.

In principle, the spore coat could be used not only as a deliv­ery vehicle for a variety of different molecules but also as a source of new and novel self-as­sembling proteins. Spore coats are comprised of protein, have ordered arrays of protomeric subunits, exhibit self-assembly and have pro­tective properties.

As dormant metabolically inactive life forms, spores can survive indefi­nitely in a desiccated state, and indeed have been documented as surviving intact for mil­lions of years. The spore can resist tempera­tures as high as 90°C as well as exposure to noxious chemicals. Most (but not all) spore forming bacteria belong to two principal gen­era, Bacillus and Clostridium.

Clostridia spore-formers, unlike Bacillus, only differentiate under anaerobic conditions making Bacillus the most amenable genus for study. A strategy to engineer Bacillus subtitles spores to display heterologous antigens on the spore surface has been recently reported.

A spore-based display system provides sev­eral advantages with respect to systems based on the use of conventional vaccines; these include the robustness of the bacterial spore allowing shortage in the desiccated form, ease of production, safety and a technologi­cal platform supported by extensive tools for genetic manipulation.

This bacterial spore- based Nano-vaccine has been tested in human against tetanus with heterologous antigen in­serted within it. The same kind of approach can be used successfully in animals such as cattle against deadly diseases like foot-and- mouth.

Nano-Apoptosis:

Like human beings, cattle are also prone to tumor and in some cases to cancer. This par­ticular disorder in many times becomes the reason for death of animals. Conservation of genetically superior animal germplasm is very much critical for animal genetics and breeding studies coupled with development of the superior breeds. Although an array of systems ranging from chemotherapy to ra­diation are available, no remedy is fully guar­anteed and, in most of the cases, cancerous animals die after initial improvement—this is mainly because of recurrence of cancer­ous cells from the remaining infectious cells.

Therefore selective killing of cancerous cells are one of the feasible option to get rid of the deadly disease. Researchers at Rice University are using Nano shells injected into the animal’s bloodstream with targeted agents applied to the Nano shells to seek out and attach to the surface receptors of cancer cells. Illumination of the body with infrared light raises the cell temperature to about 55°C, which ‘burns’ and kills the tumor.

Some research groups have been experi­menting with ‘smart’ super paramagnetic nanoparticles. These nanoparticles when injected in the bloodstream target tumor receptor cells. These nanoparticles are made from iron oxides that when subjected to a magnetic field enhances the ability of the nanoparticles to locate tumor cells. At the site of the tumor the nanoparticles emit an attached drug to kill the cancer cells.

Quantum dots may also be injected into the bloodstream of animals and they may detect cells that are malfunctioning. Because quan­tum dots respond to light it may be possible to illuminate the body with light and stimu­late the quantum dot to heat up enough to kill the cancerous cell.

Nucleic acid engineering- based probes and methods offer powerful new ways to deliver therapeutic or preventative treatment for particular diseases. The greatest challenge is to develop a non-viral DNA de­livery system that has high levels of efficien­cy and specificity but low toxicity and cost. Therefore, future DNA delivery may depend on a hybrid system that combines the benefits of both viral and non-viral components.

Animal Breeding:

Efficient breeding of cattle is one of the most important factors for successful development of breeds, which mostly involve distant par­ents, and their oestrus is sometimes very difficult to detect and it leads to repeat breeding (failure of fertilization after repetitive insemi­nation).

The problem of repeat breeding is very common in rural areas where even ar­tificial insemination fails to fertilize the egg as eggs are still underdeveloped. Therefore, management of breeding is an expensive and time-consuming problem for dairy and swine farmers.

One solution that is currently being studied is a nanotube implanted under the skin to provide real time measurement of changes in the level of estradiol in the blood. The nanotubes are used as a means of track­ing oestrus in animals because these tubes have the capacity to bind and detect the es­tradiol antibody at the time of oestrus by near infrared fluorescence. The signal from this sensor will be incorporated as a part of a cen­tral monitoring and control system to actuate breeding.

Post-Harvest Management and Food Biotechnology:

Nano Bar Codes and Identity Preservation:

Usage of bar code is the essential character­istics for selling almost all commodities both in the international market as well as in the national market. This bar code is essentially a sticker having a number of black and white bars with certain digits written at the bottom.

The bar code is nothing but an electronic data depicting several parameters such as date of production, place of packaging, prices etc. and reading this code requires an electronic data reader. With the advent of Nano tech­nology, Nano based bar codes are also avail­able which can do the same function as that of conventional bar codes, thereby helping in tracking and controlling the quality of food product and give all relevant details in min­ute.

Each day a huge amount of shipments of livestock and other agriculture products are moved all over the world and it is becoming increasingly difficult to keep a track on criti­cal control points of the production, ship­ment and storage processes.

Lack of finances also limits the number of inspectors that can be employed at these critical control points. An identity preservation (IP) system can be installed that creates increased value by pro­viding consumers with information about the practices and activities used to produce an ag­ricultural product and it is possible to provide stakeholders and consumers with access to information, records and supplier protocols regarding the farm of origin, environmental practices used in production, food safety and security, and information regarding animal welfare issues.

Nano-based identity preservation has the potential to revolutionize the entire agri based industry as it can continuously track and record the history of a particular agri­cultural product. The Nano scale monitors linked to recording and tracking devices can improve the IP of food and agricultural prod­ucts. The keys are biodegradable sensors for temperature and other stored data containing the history of stored food for both physical and biological parameters.

The future of the meat industry may well depend on an ability to track all stages in the life of the product, including the birth of the animal, its medical history, and its movements between the ranch, the slaughterhouse and the meat-packing plant, right through to the consumer’s table.

Monitoring Quality of Agricul­ture Products:

Nanotechnology also has applications in the agri-food sector. Many vitamins and their precursors, such as carotenoids, are insolu­ble in water. However, when formulated as nanoparticles, these substances can easily be mixed with cold water, and their bioavailabil­ity in the human body also increases. Many lemonades and fruit juices contain these spe­cially formulated additives, which often also provide an attractive colour. The world mar­ket potential of such micronized compounds is estimated at $1 billion. In the future bio and gas sensors could gain importance.

These sen­sors could be integrated into packaging ma­terials to monitor the freshness of the food. Spoiling of the food could be indicated by a colour change of the sensor. Several concepts have already been developed for such appli­cations based e.g. on silicon or polymer thin film sensors.

Bio selective surfaces are the new innovation of Nano science technology with a principle that surfaces are the environment and loca­tion on which most chemical and biological interactions occur. A bio selective surface has either an enhanced or reduced ability to bind or hold specific organisms or molecules.

With this bio selective surfaces minute amount of chemicals and even presence of bacteria and viruses can be detected with ease. These sur­faces are important to the development of bi­osensors, detectors, catalyst and the ability to separate or purify mixtures of biomolecules.

Enzymatic Nano Bioengineering:

A huge amount of agricultural products and foods are wasted—starting from the harvest at the field, their transportation, storage and further processing. These wastes are either rotten or damaged by rats leading to the huge crop loss.

On the other hand, it is very diffi­cult to reduce the amount of wastage incurred due to either shortage of skilled manpower or lack of mechanization. In this scenario, enzy­matic Nano bioengineering can be a right an­swer where more efficient enzymes are made through Nano science technology to further process in order to make energy.

Basically, certain atoms of certain amino acids or the amino acids itself are engineered at Nano scale to make the enzymes more efficient and rapid in degradation. This new approach is being explored in the USA, Israel, and Japan.

Preventing Environmental Damage:

The most effective way of preventing environ­mental pollution is to tackle it at the source. More efficient use of raw materials, water and energy in production processes could reduce waste production. Nanotechnologies can help with this by providing better catalysts, better sensors for process control and bet­ter separation and filter techniques. They are also increasingly helping to provide a better understanding of natural processes in living organisms, which may provide a source of in­spiration for industrial production processes.

Major possibilities exist in the energy sec­tor in particular. For example, quantum dots are used for improving the characteristics of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). LEDs with a higher light output per unit of electricity con­sumed may replace present-day incandescent lamps and fluorescent lamps in due course. This would lead to a considerable energy sav­ing and lower carbon dioxide emissions.

The use of lighter materials, such as composites of polymers and nanoparticles or carbon nano­tubes in aviation would have a similar impact. Savings could also be achieved by increasing the efficiency of combustion processes with the aid of nanoparticles or Nano porous cata­lytic converters and by using insulating and reflective glazing with Nano coatings.

Nanotechnologies also play an important role in the development of new, clean and sustainable energy sources. For example, Nano-crystalline titanium dioxide is used in new types of solar cells while quantum dots can help in improving their efficiency. There is also the hope that nanotechnologies will push through the technological breakthroughs that are required for the switch to hydrogen as a fuel.

This applies to both the production of hydrogen gas and the storage and use of fuel cells for generating electricity. The switch to materials with Nano-dimensions could lead to a considerable improvement in the prop­erties of electrodes and electrolytes, which would improve the performance of batteries and fuel cells.

The British Royal Society and the Royal Academy of Engineering pointed out in their joint report that it still remains to be seen whether materials and products based on nanotechnologies actually prove to be good for the environment throughout their lifecycle.

It will be necessary to examine whether the energy yield of a solar cell offsets the en­ergy costs involved in its production and its treatment at the waste stage. Moreover, the energy savings gained from using lighter ma­terials in aircraft construction could be lost, if people start to fly more because flights be­come cheaper. Likewise, the impact of more economical LED lamps could be lost on ac­count of more excessive use of lighting.

In summary we conclude that a significant amount of Nano technological research is be­ing conducted in the agricultural, food and environmental sectors, but not as much as in the medical field. There are opportunities for promoting health but it still has to be shown whether materials and products based on nanotechnologies can actually provide environmental benefits.