Nano-engineered botanical pesticides for sustainable crop protection: Mechanistic advances, formulation strategies, and field-scale perspectives

Growing environmental and ecological concerns about the intensive use of synthetic pesticides have accelerated the development of sustainable crop protection methods. Botanical pesticides are viewed as promising options due to their biodegradability, multi-target modes of action, and generally positive environmental impact. Still, their wider use in agriculture is limited by inherent physicochemical challenges, including photodegradation, oxidation, volatility, poor water solubility, low bioavailability, and fleeting residual activity under field conditions. Recent nanotechnology innovations offer new possibilities for addressing these issues by enabling the creation of nanoengineered botanical pesticide systems. Unlike antimicrobial nanoparticles that rely on nanoparticle toxicity for activity, these nanoformulations use nanocarriers as delivery platforms to improve stability, transport, release, and accessibility of plant-based bioactive compounds at target sites.This review critically explores the development of botanical pesticides, tracing their progression from traditional plant extracts to sophisticated nano-enabled crop protection systems. It emphasizes the mechanistic aspects of nano-engineered formulations, such as nanoencapsulation, physicochemical defense against environmental stresses, controlled-release behaviour, enhanced interaction with targets, and improved biological activity. The roles of polymeric nanoparticles, lipid carriers, chitosan nanoparticles, protein nanocarriers, and nanoemulsion systems are compared in terms of formulation stability, release profiles, and pesticidal effectiveness. Data from laboratory, greenhouse, and field studies are integrated to evaluate the practical application of nano-enhanced botanical formulations for controlling insect pests, phytopathogenic fungi, bacteria, and nematodes.This review also explores crucial translational issues such as the standardization of formulations, manufacturing scale-up, environmental safety evaluation, and regulatory challenges. By clearly differentiating nano-engineered botanical delivery systems from innate antimicrobial nanomaterials and including mechanistic, translational, and sustainability viewpoints, it offers a comprehensive framework for the future of nano-enabled botanical pesticides in sustainable farming. The integration of plant-based bioactives with cutting-edge nanocarrier technologies presents a promising route to decrease reliance on synthetic pesticides, while enhancing efficacy, environmental safety, and long-term agricultural resilience.