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ABSTRACT The versatile application of metal‐based nanoparticles has led to a recent rise in interest in the low‐cost and eco‐friendly green chemistry‐based development of metal oxide nanoparticles. This work focuses on the photocatalytic and antibacterial uses of the zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnONPs) that were produced based on a green approach employing stem extract of Piper chaba. The formation of ZnONPs was preliminary validated by the appearance of an absorption band at 373 nm and a stretching band due to ZnO at 480 cm−1 in UV–Vis and FTIR spectrum, respectively. The crystalline nature of ZnONPs with a hexagonal wurtzite phase and an average crystallite size of 25 nm was validated by XRD analysis. ZnONPs' crystalline nature was further supported by TEM, which further showed that they were mostly cubic in form and had an average length of 30 nm. Synthesized ZnONPs demonstrated significant antibacterial activity against Salmonella typhi, Vibrio cholerae, Escherichia coli, and Staphylococcus aureus and lucrative photocatalytic activity with the rate constant value of 0.0273 min−1 towards the degradation of methylene blue under sunlight exposure. Therefore, a facile, affordable, and ecologically sustainable method like this might be used for the large‐scale synthesis of ZnONPs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]