Morphological and physiological response of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum L.) to natural and synthetic cytokinin sources: a comparative study

Abstract

Among the natural plant growth stimulants, moringa has attained enormous attention due to its leaf composition being enriched with cytokinin, antioxidants and minerals. Exogenous application of moringa leaf extract (MLE) improves productivity in many crops. This study investigated the potential of MLE with different dilutions, i.e., MLE0, MLE10, MLE20 and MLE30 (0, 10, 20 and 30 times diluted in water, respectively) to improve the performance of tomato. Foliage-applied water and benzylaminopurine (BAP, 50 mg L -1 ) were taken as controls. Among treatments, foliar-applied MLE30 produced maximum vegetative and flowering branches, number of flowers and heaviest fruits per plant of tomato in comparison with synthetic BAP and other treatments. A similar increase in vegetative and flowering branches was recorded for root-applied MLE20 including BAP. Foliageapplied MLE30 also increased chlorophyll (a) pigments and leaf total soluble proteins than other stimulants used. This increase was followed by enhanced antioxidant activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD), peroxidase (POD), catalase (CAT), total phenolics in leaves and fruit lycopene contents of tomato. In general, foliar application of MLE30 was more effective as natural biostimulant to improve growth, productivity and fruit quality of tomato as compared to synthetic BAP and its root application.

Allelopathic Effects of Aqueous Extracts of Alternanthera philoxeroides on the Growth of Zoysia matrella

“…When the concentration of the root extracts reached 80 g L -1 , the root length, shoot height and fresh weight of Z. matrella showed the largest decrease (45.3, 68.8 and 54.8%, respectively). However, the root length and plant height of Z. matrella treated with stem extracts showed no significant differences from the control and the plant fresh weight increased by 30 . There were no significant differences (p<0.05) in MDA content when the concentration of extracts of all plant parts (roots, stems, and leaves) exceeded 40 g L -1…”

“…Adverse stresses induce the accumulation of ROS, including OH -, H 2 O 2 , and O 2 -in plants, and these ROS may cause oxidative damage to the plant photosynthetic pigments, cell membranes, and proteins, thus leading to the production of membrane lipid peroxidation and increasing MDA content, resulting in serious injury to the plant [29]. To avoid cellular damage by ROS, plants can produce antioxidant enzymes such as superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) as a defense against the oxidative stress to eliminate the harmful reactive oxygen radicals [30]. The antioxidant enzyme system might scavenge or suppress the active oxygen radicals and thus protect the membranes from peroxidation [31].…”

Inducing drought tolerance in wheat by applying natural and synthetic plant growth promoters

“…As MLE is a source of zeatin (major group of cytokinin) and several antioxidants (Yasmeen et al, 2013a;2013b). MLE spray might have altered the endogenous cytokinin levels, stimulating cell division (Yasmeen et al, 2014), which resulted in high dry matter production and increased other growth parameters (Tab. 2).…”

“…However, the hormonal status of plant cells might be balanced by exogenous application of cytokinin during water stress (Yasmeen et al, 2013a;2013b). In this context, leaf extract of Moringa oleifera L. (MLE) is an option to maintain higher endogenous levels of cytokinin (Yasmeen et al, 2014) under stress. MLE is a source of zeatin, a natural derivative of cytokinin, vitamins and several mineral elements such as Fe, K, and Ca (Siddhuraju and Becker, 2003).…”

Influence of Foliage Applied Allelopathic Water Extracts on the Grain Yield, Quality and Economic Returns of Hybrid Maize

“…Moringa (Moringa oleifera L.) allelopathy also has gained attention of the scientific community as it is innate source of plant growth regulators. Leaves of moringa contain a large amount of zeatin, which is a natural and cheap source of cytokinin (Foidle et al, 2001;Yasmeen et al, 2014). Significant improvement in growth and yield (20-35%) was observed in various crops like tomato, peanut, maize, wheat, rice, onion and sugarcane when 3% moringa leaf extract (MLE) was exogenously applied (Foidle et al, 2001;Yasmeen et al, 2011;Rehman et al, 2015a, b) being rich in growth regulating hormones like zeatin, antioxidants including ascorbate, phenolics and nutrients (K, Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe) (Makkar et al, 2007Rady et al, 2013).…”