Bio-Based Nanoemulsion Formulations Applicable in Agriculture, Medicine, and Food Industry

Abstract

Nanotechnology providing "a new dimension" accompanied with new properties conferred to many current materials is widely used for production of a new generation of agrochemicals, in medicine it enables improved drug bioavailability, reducing undesirable side effects, minimizing non-specific uptake and specific targeting to certain target cells, while in food industry it has great importance in food protection and biofortification of food with valuable ingredients. In biobased nanoemulsions belonging to lipid nanocarriers plant oils used for oil phase, emulsifiers, biosurfactants, cosurfactants, targeting ligands on the surface of nanoemulsion (e.g., folate) or encapsulated active ingredients are of natural origin. The biocomponents of such nanoemulsions show low toxicity to living organisms, could protect encapsulated compounds for degradation, ensure their sustainable release and reduce the amount of active ingredient necessary for required effect. This chapter presents a comprehensive current overview of recent findings in the field of nanoemulsions and their utilization in agriculture and food industry, with the main emphasis on formulations encapsulating essential oils or plant extracts suitable as effective pesticide preparations as well as medicinal applications of bio-based nanoemulsions, where attention is paid to transdermal nanoemulsion formulations, the use of nanoemulsions in cancer therapy and for pulmonary and ocular drug delivery. Nanoemulsions formulated with natural emulsifiers, biosurfactants and biopolymers are presented and bio-based nanoemulsions of essential oils and their constituents as well as nanoemulsions with encapsulated vitamins, fatty acids and some bioactive compounds are discussed. Applications of nanoemulsions in edible coatings are outlined as well.

Graphenic Materials for Biomedical Applications

“…Figure 10 represents possible interactions of GO with membranes of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria strains [102]. Hydrogels [103][104][105], especially those with a combination of GO and PEG, are characterized by good biocompatibility and an intrinsic antimicrobial activity, and are perspective colloidal building blocks for the fabrication of 3D materials, which are increasingly used in the encapsulation and Hydrogels [103][104][105], especially those with a combination of GO and PEG, are characterized by good biocompatibility and an intrinsic antimicrobial activity, and are perspective colloidal building blocks for the fabrication of 3D materials, which are increasingly used in the encapsulation and delivery of drugs and cells. Cheng et al prepared a colloidal injection hydrogel composed of GO.…”

“…DDSs include nanostructures or nanomaterials such as liposomes, micelles, branched polymers, dendrimers, microspheres, polymer shells, magnetic NPs, metal NPs, quantum dots, various other inorganic NPs, and CNTs, GR-based materials, fullerenes, nanodiamonds, etc. [103,105,123].…”

Chronic Inflammatory Diseases, Anti-Inflammatory Agents and Their Delivery Nanosystems

“…The use of suitable DDSs allows overcoming those problems and ensuring the transfer of a drug to the infected site with consequent release under selected conditions [ 60 , 63 , 64 , 65 , 66 ]. The use of nano-scale drug carriers appears to increase drug specificity and leads to a reduction in adverse effects due to the reduced drug dose [ 67 , 68 , 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 78 ] (see Figure 2 ).…”

“…NanoDDS are widely investigated for cancer therapy, cardiovascular diseases treatment, anemia, and hemophilia treatment, in nutraceutical delivery, and also for neurodegenerative, infectious, autoimmune, ocular, and pulmonary diseases as well as for diagnostic, regenerative therapy, and other purposes [ 69 , 70 , 71 , 72 , 73 , 74 , 75 , 76 , 77 , 84 , 85 ].…”

Advances in Drug Delivery Nanosystems Using Graphene-Based Materials and Carbon Nanotubes

“…Efforts to miniaturize them from macro-dimensions (>1 mm) to micro-, submicro- to nano-dimensions can be traced back to the 1990s, with great progress in recent years being made with the massive introduction of nanotechnologies [ 5 , 6 , 7 ]. Extremely popular are various nanoemulsions of lipidoid formations or colloidal nanodispersions of nanocrystals, i.e., nanoliposomes, solid lipid nanoparticles (NPs), and various other nanovesicles, dendrimers, polymer systems, tubules and quantum dots (QDs) are used as drug carriers [ 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Currently, nanoforms made from non-toxic biodegradable materials are preferred; however, in the case of nanoformulations for cancer therapy or diagnosis, inorganic carriers such as NPs of metals, metal oxides, metalloids and carbon are also used, which often potentiate the effect of the API itself [ 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 ].…”