In a world of constant duality where population density increases and natural resources disappear, there is concern over the role that green chemistry should play in improving human health. Should we sacrifice the environment for saving human lives? Traditional chemistry has undoubtedly enhanced the quality of life, but at a price threatening the environment and, in turn, affecting human health. Synthetic chemical processes (even in the manufacturing of biomaterials) are responsible for the contamination of all of the known ecosystems over the planet. Moreover, synthetic compounds and drugs used for improving human health have also led to antimicrobial resistance, chemotherapeutic-resistant cancer cells, etc. which pose even larger dangers to human health. Nevertheless, there is a cost associated with synthetic chemistry limitations that should be overcome from green chemistry approaches. Therefore, we ask the question here: can we have the best of both worlds? Can green chemistry improve human health but not contribute to a deteriorating environment?<br/>This presentation will answer this question and product several examples of green nanomedicine, in the context of nanomaterial, that are being used to improve human health and are not damaging the environment. Green chemistry approaches are especially useful for the generation of metallic nanoparticles, nanometric structures that are efficient not only against the rising concerns in healthcare but also in industrial applications. Therefore, green synthetic nanomedicine approaches offer the chance to use living organisms (such as bacteria, human cells, fungi or plants) as well as dietary and organic natural compounds (such as coffee, tea or biological waste materials present from industrial alimentary plants) to synthesize metallic nanoparticles. These green nanostructures show antibacterial and anticancer properties and have served as drug delivery carriers and for other industrial applications. These approaches are cost-effective and environmentally friendly, using standard reaction parameters in redox, reduction or hydrothermal techniques to generate metallic nanostructures with high throughput.Therefore, we firmly believe that green nanomedicine chemistry approaches can offer a wide range of alternatives to synthetic nanomaterial synthesis, especially for metallic nanoparticles, overcoming the main limitations of traditional synthetic physicochemical methodologies for improving human health.

Introducing green nanomedicine: Advancing human health without hurting the environment

256th National Meeting (2018)

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