Barley grain enrichement with essential elements by agronomic biofortification

Abstract

Barley grain is rich in mineral nutrients, but their bioavailability to humans depends on antinutrients that restrain bioavailability and promoters that promote bioavailability. The aim of this study was to examine composition of barley grain, including phytate and phenolics as antinutrients, carotenoids and glutathione as promoters and mineral elements, such as Ca, Mg, Fe, Si, Zn and Mn influenced by various non-standard foliar fertilizers (Zircon, Chitosan, Siliplant, Propikonazole), including some hormonal growth-stimulators (Epin Extra, Benzyladenine), as potential biofortification measure. Chitosan increased glutathione concentration in grain. Unfavorable meteorological conditions were partly mitigated by application of Benzyladenine and Siliplant, reflected through increased potential bioavailability of P, Mg, Ca and Fe. [Projekat Ministarstva nauke Republike Srbije, br. TR-31037]

Brassinosteroid phytochormones as regulators of plant growth and modulators of pesticide and fertilizer activity

“…After the summer harvest, we assessed crop yield (at 14% grain moisture; kg ha -1 ) and determined different chemical ingredients in barley grain. The results (Dragičević et al, 2016a) indicate that the timing of treatment (year) affected barley grain yield and chemical composition, and the highest impact was found for Si under unfavourable conditions. The applied treatments were most effective regarding grain yield and increase in grain quality, mainly by reducing the Pphy/β-carotene ratio and increasing GSH content, thus increasing the potential bioavailability of the examined mineral elements.…”

“…Based on previous field trials on one fruit (apple) and two field crops (soybean and barley), we concluded that, when compared with other non-standard fertilizers, the preparation based on 24-EBL has effect on the quality and chemical composition of crops, rather than on their yield (Nikolić & Waisi 2012;Dragičević et al 2016a, b), and it acts to protect crops under stressful conditions (Stevanović et al 2012).…”

“…We also examined the influence of the BRs-based preparation on yield and yield components in soybean and barley (Dragicevic & Stojkovic, 2016;Dragičević et al 2016a, b).…”

“…Finally, at the level of crop agrophytocenoses, and besides BR effects on other crops (Nikolić & Waisi 2012;Stevanović et al 2012;Dragičević et al 2016a, b), we notice that along with small differences in bioproduction (Tables 7 and 8) of maize crops treated with different doses of 24-EBL and PCZ, a great diversity of changes occur in maize metabolic processes (synthesis of different compounds, such as phenols, proteins and oils and absorption of various elements) under the influence of different BR treatments (Tables 9 and 10). All this points to a "network" of signals (made by BRs, other hormones, and non-hormonal signal pathways) that are "hiding" behind this phenomenon, which point not to determinism (which implies a molecular paradigm) but to the stochasticity of these processes, based on the flow of energy and matter.…”

Some aspects of application of pesticides and fertilizers on nutritive value and other characteristics of crop plants

“…After summer harvest we assessed the yield (at 14% grain moisture content; kg ha -1 ) and determined different chemical ingredients in barley grain using standard methods (Tables 8 and 9). The results (Dragičević et al, 2016a) indicated that the year affected barley grain yield and its chemical composition, and the highest impact was found for Si under unfavourable conditions (data not shown). The applied treatments had the highest effectiveness on grain yield and increased grain quality, mainly through a reduction in P phy / β-carotene ratio (Table 9) and increase in GSH content (data not shown), thus increasing potential bioavailability of the examined mineral elements.…”