*3.2. Antimycotic and Mycotoxin Neutralizing*/*Inhibiting Activity*

The antimycotic potential of zinc oxide nanoparticles or its composites has been well identified against phytopathogenic fungi belonging to diverse taxonomic groups/classes such as zygomycetous oomycetes genera (*Peronospora tabacina* [141], *Pythium ultimum, Pythium aphanidermatum* [142]), ascomyceteous genera (*Alternaria alternata* [59,62], *Aspergillus flavus*/*A. fumigatus* [51], *Aspergillus niger* [143], *Botrytis cinerea* [61,62,144,145], *Colletotrichum gloeosporioides* [56,59], *Fusarium graminearum* [146], *Fusarium moniliforme* [40], *Fusarium oxysporum* [66,144,147], *Penicillium expansum* [50,66,144,148]), and basidiomycetous genera (*Erythricium salmonicolor* [68]).

Zinc-derived nanomaterials (nanoparticles/composites) at substantially low working concentrations can kill spores or exhibit inhibition of spore germination (sporostatic/sporicidal activities) besides inhibiting the vegetative mycelial growth of the filamentous fungal plant pathogens, e.g., a significant decrease in fungal growth of *B. cinerea* and *P. expansum* has been observed on ZnO NPs (3 mM L−<sup>1</sup> concentration) treatment [144]. Likewise, events of spore germination of *Peronospora tabacina* were observed to be completely inhibited on treatment with Zn NPs, ZnO NPs, and ZnCl<sup>2</sup> soluble salt at concentrations ranging from 15–20 mg L−<sup>1</sup> [141].
