Chitosan-Enclosed Menadione Sodium Bisulfite as an Environmentally Friendly Alternative to Enhance Biostimulant Properties against Drought

• Autor(a) principal: Jiménez-Arias, David
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Bonardd, Sebastian, Morales-Sierra, Sarai, Carvalho, Miguel Â. Almeida Pinheiro de, Díaz Díaz, David
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.13/5338
• topic: Menadione sodium bisulfite; Nanoparticles; Water deficit; Biostimulants; Nanoencapsulation; .; Centro em Agricultura Sustentável e Tecnologia Alimentar; Faculdade de Ciências da Vida

Biostimulants are an interesting strategy to increase crop tolerance to water deficits, and there is an extensive bibliography on them. However, most of them need to be treated continuously to increase protection throughout the growth cycle. In this context, we chose menadione sodium bisulfite, whose protective effect against water deficit has been previously demonstrated but only for a short period of time. Nanoencapsulation seems to be an interesting way to improve the properties of biostimulants. Our results show that menadione sodium bisulfite (MSB) encapsulated in chitosan/tripolyphosphate nanoparticles can increase the system’s tolerance against an imposed water deficit and delay the need for retreatment by at least 1 week, accelerating plant recovery after rehydration. This highlights the positive properties of nanoencapsulation and shows how a simple encapsulation process can significantly improve the biostimulant protective properties, opening up new possibilities to be explored under field conditions to cope with water-deficit stress.