TABLE 3.
Nanomaterials (NMs) regarded as beneficial for various agricultural crops.
| NM | Plant | Application | Impact | References |
| Ag | Rice, brown mustard, maize, watermelon, summer squash, and radish | Interactions of NPs in plants | Stimulated growth in summer squash and watermelons, stimulated shoot and root length in brown mustard, enhanced photosynthetic efficiency in brown mustard, toxic to maize root growth, and reduced seedling growth in radishes | Sharma et al., 2012; Almutairi and Alharbi, 2015 |
| Au | Arabidopsis, flame lily, barley, rice, and tomato | Interactions of NPs in plants and imaging | Not toxic to tomato and barley, enhanced germination and vegetative growth in flame lily, and stronger NP accumulations in roots | Zhu et al., 2012; Gopinath et al., 2014; Dan et al., 2015; Avellan et al., 2017; Milewska-Hendel et al., 2017 |
| CaCO3 | Peanut | Nutrient solution | Enhanced plant biomass and yield | Xiumei et al., 2005 |
| Ca5(PO4)OH | Soybean | Nutrient solution | Improved biomass, growth, and yield | Liu and Lal, 2014 |
| Cu | Lettuce, cucumber, mung bean, wheat, and sorghum | Interactions of NPs in plants | Increased total nitrogen, shoot and root length, reduced total biomass, bioaccumulation and toxicity in wheat, mung bean, and sorghum as well as higher NP accumulation and gene deregulation in the roots of cucumber | Lee et al., 2008; Shah and Belozerova, 2009; Mosa et al., 2018 |
| CdSe/ZnS QDs | Onion, Arabidopsis, and alfalfa | Interactions of NPs in plants, imaging, fluorescent detection, and nanobiosensors | Biosensors help in pathogen detection, increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and decreased viability of cell and root growth | Santos et al., 2010; Rad et al., 2012; Koo et al., 2015; Modlitbová et al., 2018 |
| CuO | Arabidopsis, rice, wheat, and cucumber | Plant genetic engineering | Cu increased the essential nutrients in plant growth, enhanced ROS production, and reduced shoot and root length | Shi et al., 2014; Wang et al., 2016; Mosa et al., 2018 |
| Chitosan | Wheat and tea | Nanofertilizers, nanoherbicides, and plant genetic engineering | Stimulated plant growth, biocompatible and biodecomposing material, antimicrobial activity | Chandra et al., 2015; Aziz et al., 2016; Islam et al., 2017; Malerba and Cerana, 2018 |
| Dendrimer | Bentgrass | Plant genetic engineering | Endosomal escape in DNA delivery | Pasupathy et al., 2008; Kretzmann et al., 2017 |
| Fe3O4 | Soybean, wheat, and maize | Interactions of NPs in plants and nanofertilizers | Enhanced chlorophyll content in soybean, improved plant height and leaf area in wheat, and improved visible brown spots on leaves of maize | Rãcuciu and Creangã, 2009; Ghafariyan et al., 2013; Fathi et al., 2017 |
| Fullerene | Summer squash, soybean, bitter gourd, poplar, tomato, and maize | Delivery of drugs in agriculture | Decreased accumulation of pesticides in maize, soybean, tomato, and summer squash; enhanced biomass and yield in bitter gourd; and increased uptake of trichloroethylene in poplar | Ma and Wang, 2010; De La Torre-Roche et al., 2013; Kole et al., 2013 |
| Liposomes | Benth and tomato | Delivery of nutrients and DNA | Improved delivery of DNA and cell targeting as well as increased protection of nucleic acids | Karny et al., 2018 |
| Mg | Black-eyed pea | Nanofertilizers | Improved chlorophyll content as well as improved plasma membrane stability and yield | Delfani et al., 2014 |
| Mn | Mung bean and chickpea | Interaction of NPs in plants | Enhanced shoot and root length as well as improved chlorophyll and carotenoid contents | Pradhan et al., 2013 |
| Mo | Chickpea | Interaction of NPs in plants | Improved antioxidant metabolism and enhanced nodule number and biomass | Taran et al., 2014 |
| MSNs | Onion, tobacco, and maize | Plant genetic engineering, delivery of pesticides, and nanofertilizers | Control in chemical and nucleic acid release | Torney et al., 2007; Martin-Ortigosa et al., 2014; Rastogi et al., 2019 |
| MWCNTs, SWCNTs | Cotton, benth, tobacco, rice, tomato, rocket salad, Arabidopsis, barley, cucumber, ryegrass, rapeseed, and maize | Plant genetic engineering | Improved growth and metabolic activity in tobacco; increased germination, growth, and flowering of tomato; improved delivery of DNA in rocket salad, cotton, and tobacco; enhanced root growth in cucumber, ryegrass, maize, and rapeseed; and apoptosis and chromatin condensation in rice and Arabidopsis | Lin and Xing, 2007; Cañas et al., 2008; Shen et al., 2010; Khodakovskaya et al., 2013; Lahiani et al., 2013, 2016; Serag et al., 2013; Demirer et al., 2019a |
| SiC whiskers | Cotton | Plant genetic engineering | Improved genetic transformation | Asad and Arshad, 2011 |
| TiO2 | Arabidopsis, rice, and spinach | Nanofertilizers | Enhanced nitrogen metabolism and plant growth of spinach and improved seed germination | Gao F. et al., 2008; Kurepa et al., 2010; Liu J. et al., 2019 |
| ZnO | Mung bean, chickpea, onion, Arabidopsis, rapeseed, cucumber, lettuce, ryegrass, rice, radish, and maize | Nanopesticide micronutrient delivery | Reduced flowering time and yield in onion and improved plant growth, seed germination increased, inhibition of root growth in rapeseed, ryegrass, radish, lettuce, cucumber, and maize at higher application rates | Lin and Xing, 2007; Mahajan et al., 2011; Zhao et al., 2013; Laware and Raskar, 2014 |
| SiO2 | Arabidopsis | Interaction of NPs in plants | SiO2 NPs have the potential to serve as an inexpensive, highly efficient, safe, and sustainable alternative for plant disease protection | El-shetehy et al., 2021 |
*The abbreviations of NMs have been described in the main text.