Zinc oxide nanoparticles mediated salinity stress mitigation in Pisum sativum: a physio-biochemical perspective.

Salinity is the major abiotic stress among others that determines crop productivity. The primary goal is to examine the impact of Zinc Oxide Nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) on the growth, metabolism, and defense systems of pea plants in simulated stress conditions. The ZnO NPs were synthesized via a chemical process and characterized by UV, XRD, and SEM. The ZnO NPs application (50 and 100) ppm and salt (50 mM and 100 mM) concentrations were carried out individually and in combination. At 50 ppm ZnO NPs the results revealed both positive and negative effects, demonstrating an increase in the root length and other growth parameters, along with a decrease in Malondialdehyde (MDA) and hydrogen peroxide concentrations. However, different concentrations of salt (50 mM and 100 mM) had an overall negative impact on all assessed parameters. In exploring the combined effects of ZnO NPs and salt, various concentrations yielded different outcomes. Significantly, only 50 mM NaCl combined with 50 ppm ZnO NPs demonstrated positive effects on pea physiology, leading to a substantial increase in root length and improvement in other physiological parameters. Moreover, this treatment resulted in decreased levels of MAD, Glycine betaine, and hydrogen peroxide. Conversely, all other treatments exhibited negative effects on the assessed parameters, possibly due to the high concentrations of both stressors. The findings offered valuble reference data for research on the impact of salinity on growth parameters of future agriculture crop.

Variation in antioxidant and antimicrobial activities in Lantana camara L. flowers in relation to extraction methods.

BACKGROUND: The present work was designed to appraise how different extraction solvents and techniques affect the extractability of antioxidant and antimicrobial components from Lantana camara (L. camard) flowers. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Four extraction solvents including 100% methanol, 80% methanol, 100% ethanol and 80% ethanol coupled with three extraction techniques namely stirring, microwave-assisted stirring and ultrasonic-assisted stirring employed to isolate extractable components from the flowers of L. camara. The extracts produced were evaluated for their antioxidant and antimicrobial attributes. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: The yield of extractable components varied over a wide range 4.87-30.00% in relation to extraction solvent and techniques. The extracts produced contained considerable amounts of total phenolics (8.28-52.34 mg GAE/100 g DW) and total flavonoids (1.24-7.88 mg CE/100 g DW). Furthermore, a promising antioxidant activity in terms of DPPH° scavenging, inhibition of linoleic acid peroxidation and reducing power, as well as antimicrobial potential of the extracts were recorded against the selected bacterial and fungal strains. CONCLUSIONS: It was concluded that both extraction solvent and techniques employed affected the antioxidant and antimicrobial attributes of the extracts from L. camara flowers. With few exceptions, overall methanolic extracts produced by ultrasonic-assisted stirring offered superior activities followed by the microwave-assisted stirring and then stirring. The results advocate the use of appropriate extraction strategies to recover potent antioxidant and antimicrobial agents from the flowers of L. camara for nutraceutical and therapeutic.