In environmental and agronomic settings, even minor imbalances can trigger a range of unpredicted responses. Despite the widespread use of metal-based nanoparticles (NPs) and new bio-nanofertilizers, their impact on crop production is absent in the literature. Therefore, our research is focused on the agronomic effect of spray application of gold nanoparticles anchored to SiO2 mesoporous silica (AuSi-NPs), zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO-NPs), and iron oxide nanoparticles (Fe3O4-NPs) on sunflowers under real-world environments. Our findings revealed that the biosynthetically prepared AuSi-NPs and ZnO-NPs were highly effective in enhancing sunflower seasonal physiology, e.g., the value of the NDVI index increased from 0.012 to 0.025 after AuSi-NPs application. The distribution of leaf trichomes improved and the grain yield increased from 2.47 t ha-1 to 3.29 t ha-1 after ZnO-NPs application. AuSi-NPs treatment resulted in a higher content of essential linoleic acid (54.37%) when compared to the NPs-free control (51.57%), which had a higher determined oleic acid. No NPs or residual translocated metals were detected in the fully ripe sunflower seeds, except for slightly higher silica content after the AuSi-NPs treatment. Additionally, AuSi-NPs and NPs-free control showed wide insect biodiversity while ZnO-NPs treatment had the lowest value of phosphorus as anti-nutrient. Contradictory but insignificant effect on physiology, yield, and insect biodiversity was observed in Fe3O4-NPs treatment. Therefore, further studies are needed to fully understand the long-term environmental and agricultural sustainability of NPs applications.

AgroBioTech Research Centre Slovak University of Agriculture Tr A Hlinku 2 949 76 Nitra Slovakia

Department of Biotechnology Motilal Nehru National Institute of Technology Allahabad Prayagraj 211 004 Uttar Pradesh India

Department of Chemistry School of Advanced Sciences VIT AP University Amaravati 522 237 Andra Pradesh India

Department of Chemistry VIT University Vellore 632 014 Tamil Nadu India

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Montclair State University 1 Normal Ave Montclair NJ 070 43 USA

Department of Nanobiotechnology Institute of Soil Biology and Biogeochemistry Biology Centre Czech Academy of Sciences Na Sadkach 7 370 05 Ceske Budejovice Czech Republic

Institute of Agronomic Sciences Faculty of Agrobiology and Food Resources Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra Tr A Hlinku 2 949 76 Nitra Slovakia

Institute of Electrical Engineering Slovak Academy of Sciences Dúbravská cesta 9 841 04 Bratislava Slovakia

Institute of Laboratory Research on Geomaterials Faculty of Natural Sciences Comenius University in Bratislava Mlynská Dolina Ilkovičova 6 842 15 Bratislava Slovakia

Institute of Landscape Engineering Faculty of Horticulture and Landscape Engineering Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra Hospodárska 7 949 76 Nitra Slovakia

Institute of Plant and Environmental Sciences Faculty of Agrobiology and Food Resources Slovak University of Agriculture in Nitra Tr A Hlinku 2 949 76 Nitra Slovakia

Nanotechnology Centre CEET VŠB Technical University of Ostrava 17 listopadu 15 2172 708 00 Ostrava Czech Republic

Regional Centre of Advanced Technologies and Materials Czech Advanced Technology and Research Institute Palacky University Slechtitelu 27 783 71 Olomouc Czech Republic

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Enhancing Maize Yield and Quality with Metal-Based Nanoparticles without Translocation Risks: A Brief Field Study