Potential Application of Nanoparticles as Antipathogens - Advanced Materials for Agriculture, Food and Environmental Safety - page 336

agriculture sectors. A nanotech research initiative in h ailand aims to
atomically modify the characteristics of local rice varieties with the color
of leaves and stems.
Nanosilica has a great impact on agro-based products; and the use of
amorphous Nanosilica as a biopesticide is very ef ective [36].
Nanoparticles are increasingly utilized in the i eld of plant pathology,
which results in the management of various plant diseases which cause
trouble for farmers and indirectly af ect all of nature.
Pepper anthracnose, a disease caused by Colletotrichum sp., is one of the
most important limiting factors for pepper production in Korea. Silver has
been evaluated to be a very ef ective nanoparticle against pepper anthrac-
nose under dif erent culture conditions instead of commercial fungicide.
Silver nanoparticles (WA-PR-WB13R) were applied at various concentra-
tions to determine antifungal activity in vitro as well as in the i eld.
Similarly, powdery mildew can also be cured by an application of
100ppm silver nanoparticles, which show the highest inhibition rate both
before and at er the outbreak of disease on cucumbers and pumpkins [37].
Nanoencapsulation of thiamine dilauryl sulphate (TDS), a vitamin
B1 derivative, was proven to ef ectively inhibit the spore germination of
fusariumoxysporum . Nanoparticles especially played a more ei cient role
in limiting the spore germination, due to their easy penetration into hard
cell membrane and long resident time on the surface of spore cell wall.
Moreover, we can say that nanotechnology permits broad advances in
agricultural research, such as reproductive science and technology, and by
the conversion of agricultural and food wastes to energy and other useful
byproducts through enzymatic nanobioprocessing, disease prevention and
treatment of plants using various nanocides. Nanoscale devices with novel
properties make the agricultural systems “smart.” Such devices are capable
of responding to dif erent situations by themselves, thus taking appropriate
remedial action. “Smart delivery systems” in agriculture should possess com-
binations of time controlled, specii cally targeted, highly controlled, remotely
regulated/preprogrammed/self-regulated and multifunctional characteris-
tics to avoid biological barriers for successful targeting. Agriculture and food
system security, novel delivery systems for disease treatment, new tools for
molecular and cellular biology and new materials for plant pathogen detec-
tion are some of the nanotechnological links to agriculture.

12.2.4 Nanotechnology for the Health Sector

Nanotechnology has been increasingly implemented in the area of health
therapeutics in nanomedicine for the preservation and improvement of