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Over the last decade, both scientific and commercial communities have focused on developing wearable sensors for biomedical use. These sensors monitor vital signs in various individuals, including patients, athletes, infants, and the elderly. They contribute to mobile health technologies, offering real-time health recommendations and management. Wearable and implantable devices are reshaping healthcare, driven by sensor advancements. Biosensors, known for their simplicity and adaptability, hold significant potential. This review focuses on categorizing wearable biosensors, including classifying biological elements, nanomaterials, and transducers. It also examines the various types of wearable sensors, specialized sensor designs, applications in textile materials, wearable medical devices, and the advantages of biosensors in medicine. Comprehensive analysis of the various applications of wearable biotechnology while addressing the challenges and possible remedies associated with wearable technology were reviewed.

Water, constituting 75% of Earth and vital for sustaining life, faces global contamination challenges, causing approximately 2 million annual deaths from waterborne diseases, as reported by the World Health Organization. Technological strides in water purification leverage antibacterial materials to combat this issue. At the forefront is silver nanoparticles (AgNP), renowned for antimicrobial efficacy. Their action involves damaging bacterial cells and hindering metabolism, causing structural and physiological alterations in microbial membranes. Graphene oxide (GO) emerges as a potent biocide, and when combined with AgNP, it enhances antibacterial activity. The resulting composite, known as antibacterial graphene oxide quantum dots (GOQD), exhibits photocatalytic behavior when exposed to sunlight or UV rays, generating reactive oxygen species (ROS). This synergistic composite, particularly the GOQD/AgNP combination, proves effective in eliminating bacteria and fungi from water. In a recent study, GOQD was synthesized, and the GOQD/AgNP combination was prepared. Structural analyses, utilizing techniques such as FTIR, Zeta sizer, and TEM, revealed heightened antibacterial activity with increasing AgNP ratios. The GOQD/AgNP samples formed inhibition zones of 11.75 mm, 10 mm, and 9.88 mm against pathogenic bacteria Escherichia coli (E. coli) , Salmonella typhi (S. typhi) , and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) , respectively. Notably, the GOQD/AgNP composite demonstrated a synergistic antibacterial effect, showcasing its potential for widespread applications. This material holds promise for deployment in drinking water treatment plants and water storage tanks, ensuring water safety for consumption. Beyond water purification, the composite’s antibacterial properties hint at significant potential in medical and industrial realms, marking a crucial step toward safeguarding water sources and enhancing global public health.

In recent years, there has been renewed interest in the maintenance of food quality and food safety on the basis of metabolomic fingerprinting using vibrational spectroscopy combined with multivariate chemometrics. Nontargeted spectroscopy techniques such as FTIR, NIR and Raman can provide fingerprint information for metabolomic constituents in agricultural products, natural products and foods in a high-throughput, cost-effective and rapid way. In the current review, we tried to explain the capabilities of FTIR, NIR and Raman spectroscopy techniques combined with multivariate analysis for metabolic fingerprinting and profiling. Previous contributions highlighted the considerable potential of these analytical techniques for the detection and quantification of key constituents, such as aromatic amino acids, peptides, aromatic acids, carotenoids, alcohols, terpenoids and flavonoids in the food matrices. Additionally, promising results were obtained for the identification and characterization of different microorganism species such as fungus, bacterial strains and yeasts using these techniques combined with supervised and unsupervised pattern recognition techniques. In conclusion, this review summarized the cutting-edge applications of FTIR, NIR and Raman spectroscopy techniques equipped with multivariate statistics for food analysis and foodomics in the context of metabolomic fingerprinting and profiling.

Today, one of the world’s biggest problems is the assurance of food integrity from farm to fork. Economically motivated food adulteration and food authenticity problems are increasing daily with considerable health and economic effects. Early detection and prevention of food integrity-related problems could be provided by the application of effective on-site food analysis technologies. FTIR spectroscopy coupled with chemometrics can be used for the rapid quality control of a wide variety of food products with fast, high-throughput, accurate and nondestructive analysis advantages. In particular, hand-held and portable FTIR instruments have the potential to surveil food quality and food safety in various critical segments of the food supply chain. In this review, we explore the abilities of hand-held and portable FTIR spectrometers combined with multivariate statistics to conduct a quality evaluation of various food products in terms of food adulteration and authenticity issues. An examination of the literature showed that comparable results were obtained based on detection limits, correlation coefficient (R2) values, standard error values and discrimination power by using both portable/hand-held FTIR spectrometers and benchtop FTIR spectrometers. In conclusion, this review highlights the potential usefulness of portable and hand-held FTIR spectrometers combined with chemometrics for maintaining the food quality through the presentation of various applications that may shed light for on-site food control at any point of the food supply chain.

Safe and health-beneficial citrus oils can be employed as natural preservatives, flavorings, antioxidants, and as antibacterial and antifungal agents in a wide variety of food products. In this research, using GC–MS methodology, the major volatile composition of Citrus bergamia EO, obtained by hydro-distillation, was determined to consist of limonen (17.06%), linalool (46.34%) and linalyl acetate (17.69%). The molecular fingerprint was obtained using FTIR spectroscopy. The antibacterial effect of C. bergamia EO at different concentrations (0.5, 1, 2.5 and 5 µg/mL) was tested against different pathogen species (Salmonella typhimurium, Bacillus cereus, Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli, Listeria monocytogenes), based on disc diffusion assay. The in vitro antifungal activity of C. bergamia EO oil against Aspergillus niger and Penicillium expansum was evaluated using agar disc diffusion assay. Clear inhibition zones were formed by C. bergamia EO against selected species of pathogens. Almost all of the concentrations were revealed to have antifungal activity against selected fungal pathogens. The highest inhibition rate of A. niger at 6 incubation days was 67.25 ± 0.35 mm with a 20 µL dose, while the growth in the control was 90.00 ± 0.00 mm. In addition, the highest inhibition rate of P. expansum was 26.16 ± 0.76 mm with a 20 µL dose, while the growth was 45.50 ± 2.12 mm in the control fungus. A higher antifungal effect of C. bergamia EO against P. expansum was obtained. It was observed that the growth of fungi was weakened with increasing concentrations (5, 10, 15 and 20 µL dose) of C. bergamia EO. Statistically significant (p < 0.05) results were obtained for the antibacterial and antifungal effects of C. bergamia EO. The findings from the research may shed light on the further use of C. bergamia EO obtained from peels in innovative food engineering applications in order to maintain food quality, food safety, and food sustainability.