The physiological effectiveness of signal molecule salicylic acid and its nanoparticles on quality and quantity of Pisum sativum L. plants

Abstract

Nanotechnology is a novel technique used to enhance plant productivity and quality and has the capability to reduce the amount of using chemical substances to keep the safety of environment. Two field experiments were carried out in a private farm at Sharkia Governorate during the winter seasons of 2021/2022 and 2022/2023 to study effect of foliar spraying with salicylic acid (SA) at 100, 200 and 300 mgL-1 and its nanoform (SA NPs) at 25, 50 and 75 mgL-1 on both quality and economic characters of Pisum sativum L. plants. Results show that all applied treatments caused marked increases in vegetative growth parameters, photosynthetic pigments, chemical composition of leaf tissues, phenylalanine ammonia lyases (PAL) and tyrosine ammonia lyases (TAL), seed yield, yield
components and chemical composition of the yielded seeds. It was noted the promoting effect of SA NPs was more pronounced than the effect of SA as bulk form. The most promised treatments were SA NPs at 50 mgL-1 followed by SA at 200 mgL-1. Since, SA NPs at 50 mgL-1 significantly increased plant dry weight from 5.05 to 12.56 (2.49 times), total photosynthetic pigments from 1.230 to 2.377 (1.93
times), total carbohydrate of dry yielded seeds from 45.43 to 48.48 (1.06 times); starch content from 31.25 to 34.49 (1.10 times); total protein content from 23.01% to 25.43 (1.10 times), total phenolic content from 35.09 to 53.58 (1.52 times), flavonoid from 6.27 to 8.20 (1.30 times) and DPPH from 32.90 to 37.55 (1.14). Regarding the quantity of resultant yield, SA NPs at 50 mgL-1 significantly increased green yield/fed and weight of dry seed/fed by 3.87 times and 6.5 times respectively. This research clearly showed that SA NPs at low doses 50 mgL-1 has pronounced effect in increasing the quality and quantity of pea plant than the bulk form of salicylic acid at different concentration.