Hops are a common ingredient in beer production, and a considerable quantity of hops is usually discarded as a waste material once the brewing process is completed. Transforming this waste material into valuable nanomaterials offers a sustainable approach that has the potential to significantly mitigate environmental impact. Herein, a facile and green protocol for the production of zinc oxide nanozymes (ZnO NZs) using wasted hop extract (WHE) as a natural precursor was demonstrated. The process involved a hydrothermal synthesis method followed by a calcination step to form the final ZnO NZs. The results revealed that lupulon, the main β-acid in hops, particularly the phenolic hydroxy group, is primarily responsible for the biosynthesis of ZnO NZs. The WHE-ZnO NZs exhibited exceptional peroxidase-like (POD-like) activity and served as effective catalysts for the oxidation of 3,3,5,5-tetramethylbenzidine (TMB) in the presence of hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂). Analysis of the catalytic mechanism revealed that the POD-like activity of these WHE-ZnO NZs originated from their ability to expedite the transfer of electrons between TMB and H₂O₂, resulting in the enzymatic kinetics following the standard Michaelis–Menten mechanism. Furthermore, we developed a straightforward and user-friendly colorimetric technique for detecting both H₂O₂ and glucose. By utilizing the WHE-ZnO NZs as POD-like catalysts, we achieved a linear detection range of 1–1000 μM and a limit of detection of 0.24 μM (S/N = 3) for H₂O₂ detection and a linear range of 0–100 mM and a detection limit of 16.73 μM (S/N = 3) for glucose detection. These results highlighted the potential applications of our waste-to-resource approach for nanozyme synthesis in the field of analytical chemistry.

This review introduces a unified framework of sustainable ZnO nanoparticles bridging human health and environmental remediation for the first time.