Role of Zinc Nanoparticles for the Management of Post-harvest Diseases

Food is an important part of life, and we cannot survive without it. Every year, a large part of the crop is spoiled by post-harvest diseases. Sometimes it happens because of climate change, long shipping, bad handling, and lack of packaging service. Post-harvest disease control is essential to reduce food and crop losses, and there are many ways. However, the role of zinc nanoparticles, such as zinc oxide, zinc ferrite, and zinc sulfide, is important, but generally, zinc oxide is used for this purpose. There are two methods to prepare ZnO nanoparticles, electrolysis and physical vapor synthesis (PVS). In the mechanochemical process, zinc chloride reacts with sodium carbonate and sodium chloride to form zinc oxide nanoparticles. In the PVS method, plasma arc energy is used with solid precursors to produce zinc nanoparticles. They have various sensors to detect urea, uric acid, DNA, protein, phenol, glucose, and lactic acid levels. It can be used in biosensing, is important in bioimaging, and has antibacterial and antiviral properties. Zinc nanoparticles should be used correctly as they are important resources and not be wasted. It can spray zinc nanoparticles to create a vegetation layer and reduce loss. Zinc nanoparticles are an emerging field in controlling post-harvest diseases in plants.