Green synthesis approaches are gaining significance as promising routes for the sustainable preparation of nanoparticles, offering reduced toxicity towards living organisms and the environment. Nanomaterials produced by green synthesis approaches can offer additional benefits, including reduced energy inputs and lower production costs than traditional synthesis, which bodes well for commercial-scale production. The biomolecules and phytochemicals extracted from microbes and plants, respectively, are active compounds that function as reducing and stabilizing agents for the green synthesis of nanoparticles. Microorganisms, such as bacteria, yeasts, fungi, and algae, have been used in nanomaterials’ biological synthesis for some time. Furthermore, the use of plants or plant extracts for metal and metal-based hybrid nanoparticle synthesis represents a novel green synthesis approach that has attracted significant research interest. This review discusses various biosynthesis approaches via microbes and plants for the green preparation of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles and provides insights into the molecular aspects of the synthesis mechanisms and biomedical applications. The use of agriculture waste as a potential bioresource for nanoparticle synthesis and biomedical applications of biosynthesized nanoparticles is also discussed.

Concrete remains the most utilised construction material for building envelopes, which regulate the indoor temperature to achieve human thermal comfort. Often, the energy consumption for building performance appraisal is related to the thermal behaviour of building materials as heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems all variously contribute to human comfort. Following the development of concrete technology, many types of concrete have been invented to serve several purposes in the construction industry. To clearly understand the concrete type tailored for the specifics of a construction project, the local climate, concrete mechanical properties, and concrete thermal behaviours should be primarily identified to achieve energy efficiency, which also suits the sustainability of global materials. This paper, therefore, reviews the modified concrete thermal behaviours in the tropical climate for more systematic city planning in order to achieve better energy efficiency. Urban heat islands in the tropics and contributing factors, as well as heat transfer mechanisms, are first highlighted. The requirements of concrete thermal behaviour for building envelopes are then discussed through specific heat capacity, thermal conductivity, thermal diffusivity, time lag, and decrement factor in the context of applications and energy consumption in the tropical regions. With a case study, it is found that concrete thermal behaviours directly affect the energy consumption attributed mainly to the use of cooling systems in the tropics. The study can be a reference to mitigating the urban heat island phenomenon in the planning of urban development.

Peptides are short sequences of proteins consisting of two or more amino acids that are linked by peptide bonds. Peptide-based designs and drug deliveries can offer several advantages, such as antioxidant, antimicrobial, antihypertensive activities, along with immunomodulatory and antithrombotic properties, with hormone or drug-like potential. Peptide-based therapeutic formulations are used as drug candidates for the treatment of various diseases. However, there are several concerns associated with the efficacy of peptides in pharmaceutical design and delivery, including rapid degradation, limited solubility, and poor permeability. The nanoformulation of peptides has been identified as a promising approach for improving the stability of peptides and providing metabolic stability and bioavailability. This article provides an overview of the advances in the development of peptides for drug design and formulation applications. It discusses various peptide nanoformulation approaches as well as recent developments in the in vitro and in vivo analyses of nanoformulated peptides for pharmaceutical applications.