As a potent herbicide capable of contaminating water and soil environments, paraquat, which is still widely used worldwide, is toxic to mammals, algae, aquatic animals, etc. Paraquat was loaded on novel nanoparticles composed of pectin, chitosan, and sodium tripolyphosphate (PEC/CS/TPP). The size, polydispersity index, and ζ potential of nanoparticles were characterized. Further assessments were carried out by SEM, AFM, FT-IR, and DSC. The encapsulation was highly efficient, and there was a delayed release pattern of paraquat. The encapsulated herbicide was less toxic to alveolar and mouth cell lines. Moreover, the mutagenicity of the formulation was significantly lower than those of pure or commercial forms of paraquat in a Salmonella typhimurium strain model. The soil sorption of paraquat and the deep soil penetration of the nanoparticle-associated herbicide were also decreased. The herbicidal activity of paraquat for maize or mustard was not only preserved but also enhanced after encapsulation. It was concluded that paraquat encapsulation with PEC/CS/TPP nanoparticles is highly efficient and the formulation has significant herbicide activity. It is less toxic to human environment and cells, as was evidenced by less soil sorption, cytotoxicity, and mutagenicity. Hence, paraquat-loaded PEC/CS/TPP nanoparticles have potential advantages for future use in agriculture.

Chilling stress is of major limiting factors influencing the growth and development of warm-season crops like cucumber. In this research, the possibility of chilling tolerance of cucumber seedlings was investigated through employing the drought and low-temperature pretreatments. The factorial experiment consisted of two factors including cucumber cultivars (i.e. ‘Super Dominos’ and ‘Super Star’) and hardening treatments (control, low temperatures at 10°C, and 15°C and drought simulated by 10% and 20% PEG) based on completely randomized design (CRD) in 3 replications. After applying treatments and providing them 48 h opportunity to be recovered, the seedlings were subjected to 3°C for a six-day period and 6 h for each day. All hardening treatments improved seedlings’ growth, chlorophyll content, total phenol (TP) and antioxidant enzyme activities, while reducing chilling injury index and malondialdehyde (MDA) content. Comparing to temperature hardening, the drought pretreatment showed to have a better effect on inducing the chilling tolerance into cultivars. Overall, the results of this experiment showed that employing drought and low-temperature pretreatments enabled cucumber seedlings to mitigate the harmful effects of chilling.

In order to evaluate yield and some physiological traits of forage corn under nitrogen fertilizers (biological, chemical and integrated) in additive intercropping with basil a field experiment was carried out in the Experimental Farm of Faculty of Agriculture, Lorestan University during 2014-2015 growing seasons. Treatments were arranged in a factorial experiment based on randomized complete blocks design with three replications. Experimental treatments were 100% chemical fertilizer (N), bio-fertilizer (nitroxin), integration of bio-fertilizer + 50% chemical fertilizer and control in different intercropping systems consisted of sole cropping corn and the additive intercropping of corn + 25% sweet basil, corn + 50% sweet basil, corn + 75% sweet basil and corn + 100% sweet basil. The results showed that integration of bio-fertilizer + 50% chemical fertilizer had the highest number of green leaves per plant (11.72) and leaf area index (LAI) (3.75) and there was no significant difference between this treatment and using 100% chemical fertilizer (N) in plant height, stem dry weight, chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and carotenoids contents. Among different intercropping systems the highest plant height (179.25 cm), number of green leaves per plant (11.4), leaf dry weight (5.64 ton*ha ), chlorophyll a (0.62 mg*g -1 FW), chlorophyll b (0.42 mg*g -1 FW), and total chlorophyll (1.04 mg*g -1 FW) were obtained from sole cropping pattern. However, sole cropping pattern in terms of mentioned traits except for number of green leaves per plant, ear dry weight and total dry weight had no significant difference with corn + 25% sweet basil and corn + 50% sweet basil treatments The results showed that integration of bio-fertilizer + 50% chemical fertilizer could be considered as an approach to reduce the consumption of chemical fertilizers for sustainable agriculture