Natural fiber‐reinforced composites have emerged as a promising alternative in various industries, including automotive, aerospace, construction, and civil engineering, owing to their eco‐friendly nature and favorable mechanical properties. However, challenges such as low thermal stability and high moisture absorption limit their widespread use. To overcome these limitations, surface modifications such as mercerization, benzoylation, silane treatment, and acetylation have been extensively explored. Hybrid composites (HCs), combining natural and synthetic fibers, offer a compelling solution by harnessing the unique properties of both materials. This review comprehensively examines the types of fibers and polymers utilized in HCs, along with various chemical treatments to enhance their properties. Additionally, a detailed analysis of different manufacturing processes for HCs is provided, including hand lay‐up, vacuum‐assisted resin transfer molding, autoclave molding, injection molding, and compression molding. Furthermore, this review highlights recent advancements in HCs and their applications. Significant outcomes include a deeper understanding of the synergistic effects between natural and synthetic fibers, improved mechanical and thermal properties, and enhanced applications in diverse industries. The potential of HCs as a sustainable and high‐performance material solution emphasizes the importance of ongoing research and innovation in this field to overcome existing challenges and unlock new possibilities for composite engineering. Highlights: Surface modifications such as mercerization, benzoylation, and silane treatment enhance the properties of natural fibers in composite materials. Hybrid composites (HCs) offer unique advantages by combining natural and synthetic fibers, including improved thermal, mechanical, and damping properties. Various chemical treatments and manufacturing processes contribute to enhancing the properties and applications of HCs. Recent advancements in HCs have led to an improved understanding and utilization of composite engineering across multiple industries. The review discusses challenges, opportunities, and future prospects for HCs, emphasizing the need for ongoing research and innovation in this field.

A new generation of functional coatings offers flame retardancy, antimicrobial efficacy, and self-cleaning properties, making them valuable additions to healthcare, the military, and industrial applications.

Curcumin (cur) possesses excellent therapeutic properties, including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and healing-promoting effects. However, its biomedical application is impeded by its rapid degradation, limited bioavailability, and poor aqueous solubility. Zeolitic imidazole framework (ZIF-8), with a high surface area and tunable pore size, is designed and used as a cur delivery carrier to overcome these limitations. The synthesis of cur-loaded ZIF-8 involves a solvothermal method, followed by encapsulation of cur within the porous structure of ZIF-8. The amount of cur was varied to synthesize a series of panel cur-loaded ZIF-8. 0.5 mg/mL cur@ZIF-8 that showed higher drug loading efficiency (85.91 ± 1.26%) and drug loading capability (12.93 ± 0.19%) without changes in shape, size, crystallinity, chemical composition, and thermal stability of original ZIF-8. 0.5 mg/mL cur@ZIF-8 exhibited excellent surface area (1591.02 m²/g) and micropore volume (0.54 cm³/g). Cur@ZIF-8 demonstrated superior thermal stability and outstanding antibacterial properties, achieving 99% efficiency compared with free cur. It exhibited less cytotoxicity against human fibroblast cells and better antioxidant properties than ZIF-8. Furthermore, the drug release rate of cur@ZIF-8 is higher under acidic conditions, which promotes wound healing due to the acidic microenvironment of the skin. The biocompatibility and stability of cur@ZIF-8 nanoparticles highlight their potential as promising candidates for diverse biomedical applications.

The demand of natural cellulosic fibers has been increasing day by day due to their versatile uses and eco-friendly nature. The reason behind this demand is due to some unique properties of natural fibers that are suitable for several fibrous applications such as in composite, textile, nano-materials, conductive carbon, biomaterials etc. In this study, a new natural cellulosic fiber is extracted from the bark of the jack tree branches by water retting process. The fiber is characterized by standard methods. The result of the chemical compositions of the fiber shows that it contains α-cellulose 79.32%, hemicellulose 8.01%, lignin 6.77%, ash 3.58% and extractives 2.32%. XRD analysis reveals its high level of crystallinity (86%) and the microfibrillar angle (MFA) calculated from the XRD data is found −29°. The FTIR analysis confirms the presence of expected functional groups. Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA) and the derivative thermogravimetric (DTG) reveal its good thermal stability and the maximum degradation occurred at 358 °C for the degradation of the α-cellulose. The density of the fiber is found 1.05 g/cc, which is lower compared to many other known natural fibers. All these properties of this new fiber are suitable for several sophisticated fibrous applications such as reinforcement in composite, textile, cellulose nano-materials, activated or conductive carbon, biomaterials etc.

The study aims to investigate the effects of different drying methods on the changes in functional properties, physicochemical composition, bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity, sensory attributes, and microstructural quality of the banana flours. Two local banana cultivars, Mehersagar and Sabri, were dried to produce flour using four distinct drying methods: freeze drying (FD), cabinet drying (CD), microwave oven drying (MOD), and forced air oven drying (FOD). The functional properties of the developed banana flours were observed where the findings were as water holding capacity (0.93 ± 0.06–2.74 ± 0.04 g water/g dry sample), oil absorption capacity (0.87 ± 0.06–2.22 ± 0.10 g oil/g dry sample), swelling capacity (4.62 ± 0.02–5.05 ± 0.03 g paste/g dry sample), bulk density (0.54 ± 0.04–0.81 ± 0.02 g/ml), tapped density (0.62 ± 0.04–0.93 ± 0.03 g/ml) and Carr's Index (9.38 ± 0.47–13.58 ± 0.43%). Freeze-dried Mehersagar cultivar's flour showed the leading functional properties with good flowability and cohesiveness. The physicochemical parameters of the flours also revealed significant differences (p < 0.05) in lightness (L*) (50.51 ± 1.49–72.21 ± 1.05), moisture content (3.96 ± 0.09–7.74 ± 0.13%), protein (2.72 ± 0.07–3.93 ± 0.06%), crude fat (0.11 ± 0.01–0.36 ± 0.04%), crude fiber (0.64 ± 0.03–1.22 ± 0.03%), carbohydrate (84.15 ± 0.24–88.26 ± 0.15%) and energy content (354.25 ± 0.57–370.02 ± 0.39 kcal/g). Total flavonoid content (21.44 ± 0.04–34.34 ± 0.03 mgQE/100g) and phenolic content (29.91 ± 0.01–71.46 ± 0.03 mgGAE/100g) was observed, while the highest retention of bioactive compounds was exhibited in Mehersagar cultivar's flour. In terms of appearance, fineness, taste, flavor, color, and overall acceptability, the dried banana flour of both the cultivars obtained from freeze-dried scored overall acceptability 8.04 ± 0.02 and 7.92 ± 0.17, respectively. The scanning electron microscopy analysis of the microstructure of flour granules from each sample revealed a diverse morphological configuration in particle size and shape. According to the findings of this study, the freeze-drying technology is superior to others, and the Mehersagar banana cultivar is more satisfactory in terms of quality characteristics. Moreover, the quality parameters of banana flour may facilitate the formulation of different flour-based gluten-free baked products and food supplements.