ABSTRACT
Nanotechnology and biotechnology have made remarkable advances in the recent times; the two fields have been made since time immemorial to reap huge benefits in numerous sectors like medicine, industry, human health, and welfare. A fast, sustainable and nontoxic process for the synthesis of metallic nanoparticles (NPs) is of vital importance in the field of nanobiotechnology. Synthesis of metallic NPs, using biological systems, particularly plants, is an emerging field. For the production of metallic NPs, extracts from plants, tissues, extrudes, and other plant parts have been used widely. The benefit of using plant-based NPs can be exponentially scaled up if such particles are produced extracellularly and their size, shape, and dispersion be controlled. “Green” synthesis of NPs is highly very cost-effective and therefore, it can be proposed to be a suitable prospect, if scaled up suitably, for the production of NPs on an industrial scale. In every field of science—from agriculture, to health as well as to solving the global energy crisis—plant-based NPs have defined a niche to prove their applicability. In this view, the current chapter attempts to highlight the numerous uses of “green” nanomaterials in various sectors.
