A biostimulant composition that protects crops from adverse conditions and improves harvest yields (IMAGE)
Caption
Photo: Jimmy Sampedro Guerrero, Vanessa Almache Avenaño, Aurelio Gómez Cadenas and Carolina Clausell Terol (Eco-physiology and Biotechnology research group).
A research team from the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló has developed a biostimulant composition that protects crops against adverse environmental conditions and improves their performance.
The new compound incorporates proline particles encapsulated in silica, an amino acid that protects cellular structures and enhances plants’ ability to tolerate adverse conditions. Its production process, based on aqueous suspension and spray drying, is easily scalable, cost-effective and reproducible, ensuring protection of the active ingredient against thermal degradation and its controlled release.
“The controlled release of proline”, the research team explains, “activates the plant’s natural defence mechanisms and improves its tolerance to drought, high temperatures and salinity, among other types of stress. In this way, damage is reduced and growth and production are maintained".
This biostimulant composition, validated at experimental laboratory scale and protected through a European patent application, is seeking collaboration with companies in the biotechnology and agricultural sectors for its further development and adaptation to specific applications through tailored agreements and a subsequent licensing agreement. In the researchers’ view, “it is a simple technology that can be easily scaled up to industrial level”.
Credit
Universitat Jaume I of Castellón
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