Material science and bionanotechnology: extracts of a meeting

Abstract

Introduction
Natural products, widely used in traditional
medicine, are a common source of bioactive
molecules used as active ingredients, carriers and
biodegradable packaging. Thus, one of the major
goals of the delivery system is to increase the
efficacy of the selected ingredients that should
penetrate the designed site of interest. Moreover,
biodegradable and biocompatible natural polymers
are the best materials to be used as carriers of
pharmaceutical and cosmetic active ingredients
that enhance their stability characteristics.
Moreover, skin penetration and the consequent
product efficacy seem to be increased when the
ingredients are used at their nano-size dimension,
therefore made by the nanotechnology (1, 2).
This technology makes it possible to make
minute particles on an atomic or molecular scale,
whose size is measured in nanometers (nm) (i.d.,
one billionth of a meter). However, on the other
hand, the consumer's request is for effective and
safe products made with natural ingredients (3).
Consequently, the so-called green and sustainable
chemistry was born, based on natural ingredients
made possibly at their nanoscale. Thus, sustainable
chemistry is defined as "the utilization of a set of
principles that reduces or eliminates the use of
generation of hazardous substances in the design,
manufacture and application of chemical
products" (4, 5).
All the products should aim to maintain good
health for humans and the environment, coping
with nature's way of producing without producing
waste. According to James Lovelock, the
physicochemical and biological processes of the
inhabitants of our planet are capable of selfregulation
to maintain the best rules for living
together (6). As a consequence, humans and
animals depend on energy produced during plants'
photosynthesis, and, in turn, plants depend on
carbon dioxide, produced by mammals, and
nitrogen from bacteria. Therefore, no one can
survive alone but, living together, it's possible to
maintain the general condition of life. Thus, the
necessity to change the way of producing,
consuming and transforming the actual linear
economy into a circular green economy, redesigning,
reusing and recycling all the goods
without producing waste material (Fig. 1). The
expanding fossil-based economy has created local
and global environmental and social problems and
tensions, including climate changing, biodiversity
loss and increased pollution