Field demonstration of irradiated sodium alginate as tea production booster

Abstract

Sodium alginate oligomers were tested for tea plant growth promoter and anti-fungal agent in this experiment. Sodium alginate solutions were irradiated by Co-60 gamma radiation with different radiation doses to produce the oligomers. Irradiated solutions were then diluted into 150, 300 and 500 ppm prior to foliar application. Solutions were applied through foliar spraying at 7 days interval and the best response of tea plants in terms of various attributes were recorded. Tea buds were collected in 10 days of interval and the growth attributes liketotal number of buds, fresh weight of buds, average leaf area and weight per bud, weight of made tea etc. were calculated. The experiment was continued up to 12 weeks and the attributes were averaged to get results per plucking. 12 kGy radiation doses along with 300ppm solution showed the best results and about 36% increase in productivity was found based on the fresh weight of buds. Total fungal count in tea leaves was also found to be reduced greatly. Based on the present study, irradiated sodium alginate could be used as safe and environmentally friendly agent to increase tea production.

Role of gamma-irradiated sodium alginate on growth, physiological and active components of iceberg lettuce (Lactuca sativa) plant

“…The use of γ-irradiated Na-alginate might have enhanced photosynthetic efficiency through efficient assimilation and translocation [ 27 ]. Moreover, small alginate molecules had higher stomatal uptake, enhanced the photosynthesis, and thus increased the leaf size [ 40 ]. A stimulating the effect of sodium alginate on chlorophyll content may be due to increase leaf nitrogen, which is a constituent of the chlorophyll molecule.…”

Microwave Assisted Extraction of Raw Alginate as a Sustainable and Cost-Effective Method to Treat Beach-Accumulated Sargassum Algae

“…Indeed, the plant sprayed with alginate does not show any infesting weeds, providing a healthy growth of the leaves, whereas untreated pot demonstrates a significantly high level of weed. Up to date alginate oligosaccharides [ 59 , 60 , 61 ], gamma-irradiated alginates [ 62 , 63 ], and alginates capsules/films as matrices for bacteria/nutrients [ 64 ] have proved to be efficient as plant-growth promoters. The preliminary HD pot result obtained in this work suggests that extracted alginates preserving all the proteins, minerals, pigments, and bioactive molecules, can provide a beneficial effect on the healthy growth of crops, without further modification or additional nutrients.…”

Exploring the perspectives of irradiated sodium alginate on molecular and physiological parameters of heavy metal stressed Vigna radiata L. plants

“…Additionally, it was noted that depolymerized polysaccharides including alginate, carrageenan, and chitosan have unique features such as promoting germination and shoot elongation (Idrees et al 2011 ; Taha and Sorour 2019 ; Mirajkar et al 2019 ). Photosynthesis was promoted by the fact that smaller alginate molecules exhibited better stomatal absorption (Hossain et al 2021 ). The usage of ISA may have boosted photosynthate's efficient assimilation and translocation, which may have contributed to the spearmint plant's improved leaf growth (Sadiq et al 2017 ).…”

“…In contrast to enzymatic transformations or hydrolysis methods, gamma radiation is one of the most practical (clean one-step method), easy, economically feasible, highly safe to implement and effective technologies available to rapidly produce, in contrast to enzymatic transformations or hydrolysis methods, alginate oligosaccharides having low molecular weight and higher functional groups (El-Rehim et al 2011 ; El-Mohdy 2012 , 2017 ; Ali et al 2014 ; Shabbir et al 2017 ). ISA (small size oligomers) were successfully applied as natural biofertilizers (plant growth promoting substances) to induce a variety of biological and physiological processes, including the general enhancement of plant development; seed germination, shoot and root growth, flower production; to promote plant growth in a similar manner to other growth regulators; antibacterial action; reduction of heavy metal stress; and induction of phytoalexins along with inhibition of HM stresses from plants (Fahmida et al 2013 ; Tariq et al 2014 ; Aftab et al 2016 ; Mohammad et al 2017 ; Shabbir et al 2017 ; Hossain et al 2021 ). However, none of the investigations have been conducted so far with these crop plants in HM stress alleviation in association with ISA.…”