Abstract
Chitosan is a natural polymer, which has been used in agriculture to stimulate crop growth. Furthermore, it has been used for the encapsulation of nanoparticles in order to obtain controlled release. In this work, the effect of chitosan–PVA and Cu nanoparticles (Cu NPs) absorbed on chitosan–PVA on growth, antioxidant capacity, mineral content, and saline stress in tomato plants was evaluated. The results show that treatments with chitosan–PVA increased tomato growth. Furthermore, chitosan–PVA increased the content of chlorophylls a and b, total chlorophylls, carotenoids, and superoxide dismutase. When chitosan–PVA was mixed with Cu NPs, the mechanism of enzymatic defense of tomato plants was activated. The chitosan–PVA and chitosan–PVA + Cu NPs increased the content of vitamin C and lycopene, respectively. The application of chitosan–PVA and Cu NPs might induce mechanisms of tolerance to salinity.
Highlights
Chitosan is a natural polymer derived from the deacetylation of chitin, which has great capacity in reticulation and cation exchange in acid solutions and has great affinity with metallic ions [1].This polymer has been extensively investigated in agriculture and has been shown to stimulate growth and activate the defense mechanisms in plants [2]
For the number of leaves, those treated with chitosan–polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) + Cu nanoparticles (Cu NPs) had 3.3% smaller leaves compared to the absolute control
The present work shows that the application of both chitosan–PVA and chitosan–PVA + Cu NPs promoted the vegetative and reproductive growth of tomato plants without saline stress
Summary
Chitosan is a natural polymer derived from the deacetylation of chitin, which has great capacity in reticulation and cation exchange in acid solutions and has great affinity with metallic ions [1]. This polymer has been extensively investigated in agriculture and has been shown to stimulate growth and activate the defense mechanisms in plants [2]. It is reported that, most of the time, concentrations of NMs less than 100 ppm applied via soil, foliar, or seeds, especially 10–40 mg kg−1 , have been shown to have beneficial effects on plant growth, while higher concentrations have inhibitory effects. Copper nanoparticles (Cu NPs) are one of the NMs based on metals, which have been shown to improve plant growth, increase chlorophyll concentration, and increase the concentration of phenolic compounds and defensive enzymes
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