{"title":"Nano-encapsulated biostimulant enhances growth and postharvest quality of chili peppers (Capsicum annuum)","authors":"Stella Matthews , Asgar Ali , Yasmeen Siddiqui","doi":"10.1016/j.scienta.2024.113920","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Biostimulants play a vital role in improving the postharvest quality of agricultural produce. However, biostimulant efficiency assessment is mainly based on vegetative growth and crop yield. The function of biostimulants must be evaluated thoroughly to determine their contribution to enhancing the phenotypic characteristics and nutritional value of produce. This study evaluated a new formulation of microbial and botanical biostimulants on the capsaicin, ascorbic acid, flavonoid, and phenolic content of chilies. Biostimulant treatment recorded 0.618 quantum yield (QY) value compared with 0.581 quantum yield value of plants not treated with biostimulants, representing the plant's photosynthetic capacity. The chili plants treated with the biostimulant showed a significant increase in height and yield, which accounted for 60 cm of mean value and 575.41 g than plants that were not treated with the biostimulants, which represented 53 cm height of the mean value and 522.16 g of yield. Chili plants treated with biostimulant showed a higher L value, −15.38 ± 11.9 and a chroma value of 8.77 ± 5.56 in chili fruits compared to −8.29 ± 7.97 of l-value and 5.30 ± 6.81 mean chroma value in chili plants not treated with biostimulants. Red chilies harvested from plants that were not treated with biostimulants recorded the highest phenolic content (1.332 ± 0.56 mg/L) compared to the chilies that were treated with biostimulants (0.8830 ± 0.19 mg/L). In contrast, red chilies harvested from the plants treated with biostimulants recorded the highest flavonoid content (15.77 ± 1.0 mg/L) than plants not treated with biostimulants (13.098 ± 1.8 mg/L). Biostimulant treatment enhanced the capsaicin content in the early stages of chili development. The highest ascorbic acid content in chilies treated with biostimulants (144.29 ± 6.1 mg/L), followed by green chilies treated with biostimulants twenty-seven days after anthesis (132.85 ± 1.67). These results indicate the potential of nano-encapsulated microbial and botanical biostimulants to improve the postharvest quality of chili fruits.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":21679,"journal":{"name":"Scientia Horticulturae","volume":"340 ","pages":"Article 113920"},"PeriodicalIF":3.9000,"publicationDate":"2025-01-15","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Scientia Horticulturae","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304423824010720","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"HORTICULTURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Biostimulants play a vital role in improving the postharvest quality of agricultural produce. However, biostimulant efficiency assessment is mainly based on vegetative growth and crop yield. The function of biostimulants must be evaluated thoroughly to determine their contribution to enhancing the phenotypic characteristics and nutritional value of produce. This study evaluated a new formulation of microbial and botanical biostimulants on the capsaicin, ascorbic acid, flavonoid, and phenolic content of chilies. Biostimulant treatment recorded 0.618 quantum yield (QY) value compared with 0.581 quantum yield value of plants not treated with biostimulants, representing the plant's photosynthetic capacity. The chili plants treated with the biostimulant showed a significant increase in height and yield, which accounted for 60 cm of mean value and 575.41 g than plants that were not treated with the biostimulants, which represented 53 cm height of the mean value and 522.16 g of yield. Chili plants treated with biostimulant showed a higher L value, −15.38 ± 11.9 and a chroma value of 8.77 ± 5.56 in chili fruits compared to −8.29 ± 7.97 of l-value and 5.30 ± 6.81 mean chroma value in chili plants not treated with biostimulants. Red chilies harvested from plants that were not treated with biostimulants recorded the highest phenolic content (1.332 ± 0.56 mg/L) compared to the chilies that were treated with biostimulants (0.8830 ± 0.19 mg/L). In contrast, red chilies harvested from the plants treated with biostimulants recorded the highest flavonoid content (15.77 ± 1.0 mg/L) than plants not treated with biostimulants (13.098 ± 1.8 mg/L). Biostimulant treatment enhanced the capsaicin content in the early stages of chili development. The highest ascorbic acid content in chilies treated with biostimulants (144.29 ± 6.1 mg/L), followed by green chilies treated with biostimulants twenty-seven days after anthesis (132.85 ± 1.67). These results indicate the potential of nano-encapsulated microbial and botanical biostimulants to improve the postharvest quality of chili fruits.
期刊介绍:
Scientia Horticulturae is an international journal publishing research related to horticultural crops. Articles in the journal deal with open or protected production of vegetables, fruits, edible fungi and ornamentals under temperate, subtropical and tropical conditions. Papers in related areas (biochemistry, micropropagation, soil science, plant breeding, plant physiology, phytopathology, etc.) are considered, if they contain information of direct significance to horticulture. Papers on the technical aspects of horticulture (engineering, crop processing, storage, transport etc.) are accepted for publication only if they relate directly to the living product. In the case of plantation crops, those yielding a product that may be used fresh (e.g. tropical vegetables, citrus, bananas, and other fruits) will be considered, while those papers describing the processing of the product (e.g. rubber, tobacco, and quinine) will not. The scope of the journal includes all horticultural crops but does not include speciality crops such as, medicinal crops or forestry crops, such as bamboo. Basic molecular studies without any direct application in horticulture will not be considered for this journal.