Cost-effective Phytohormone Extraction of Sargassum swartzii from the Persian Gulf.

Abstract

Introduction: Algae extracts are utilized as biofertilizers instead of chemical fertilizers in agriculture. Further, algae are known to possess a high content of plant hormones, such as gibberellin, salicylic acid, abscisic acid, and brassinosteroids.

Objective: The main objective of this study was to increase the extraction yield and simultaneously extract hormones required for plant growth from Sargassum swartzii using Magnetic recoverable ionic liquid (IL).

Methods: In this study, extraction was performed by acidic digestion with acetic acid and then alkaline digestion with potassium hydroxide.

Results: The results showed the ionic liquid effect in extraction yield by 266 percent. The extracted phytohormones were analyzed using high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) methods. High levels of gibberellin, salicylic acid, abscisic acid, and brassinosteroids in improved algae extraction showed that seaweed extract could be used as environmentally friendly liquid bio-fertilizers to replace chemical fertilizers and could play a crucial role in organic farming for sustainable agriculture. Additionally, the recoverability of ionic liquid eight times with negligible leaching proved the introduced procedure to be cost-effective.

Conclusion: The reported procedure for algae extraction improved by using an acidic/primary ionic liquid environment. This procedure is economical because of the simple reusability of ionic liquid due to its magnetic features.