Effect of Protein Gel Treatments on Biometric and Biochemical Attributes of Tomato Seedlings in Greenhouse Condition

Daniela Balan, Gabriela Luţă (), Maria Stanca (), Ovidiu Jerca, Mihaela Niculescu, Carmen Gaidau, Stefana Jurcoane and Antoaneta Mihalcea
Additional contact information
Daniela Balan: Faculty of Biotechnologies, University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, 59 Mărăști Blvd, 011464 Bucharest, Romania
Gabriela Luţă: Faculty of Biotechnologies, University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, 59 Mărăști Blvd, 011464 Bucharest, Romania
Maria Stanca: Research and Development National Institute for Textiles and Leather-Division Leather and Footwear Research Institute, Leather Research Department, 93, Ion Minulescu Str., 031215 Bucharest, Romania
Ovidiu Jerca: Faculty of Biotechnologies, University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, 59 Mărăști Blvd, 011464 Bucharest, Romania
Mihaela Niculescu: Research and Development National Institute for Textiles and Leather-Division Leather and Footwear Research Institute, Leather Research Department, 93, Ion Minulescu Str., 031215 Bucharest, Romania
Carmen Gaidau: Research and Development National Institute for Textiles and Leather-Division Leather and Footwear Research Institute, Leather Research Department, 93, Ion Minulescu Str., 031215 Bucharest, Romania
Stefana Jurcoane: Faculty of Biotechnologies, University of Agronomic Sciences and Veterinary Medicine of Bucharest, 59 Mărăști Blvd, 011464 Bucharest, Romania
Antoaneta Mihalcea: SC MARCOSER SRL, Str. Principala, Nr. 1A1, 807185 Matca, Romania

Agriculture, 2022, vol. 13, issue 1, 1-13

Abstract: Protein hydrolysates are widely used in agricultural crops for improving plant nutrient uptake, growth, yield, and fruit quality. Tomato ( Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.) is one of the most important vegetables consumed around the world both for its good taste and rich content in vitamins, minerals, lycopene, and β-carotene. The objective of the present study was to assess the effect of new stimulant products based on protein hydrolysates obtained from animal tissue by-products on tomato seedlings. Given the increased intake of amino acids, it is expected that this treatment will exert beneficial effects on the development of certain vigorous seedlings, representing the premise for obtaining superior tomato plants and the improvement of the production and quality of tomato fruit. Two variants of protein gels based on gelatin and keratin hydrolysates were obtained by processing bovine hide and wool and were used for periodical root applications on tomato seedlings cultivated in a greenhouse. During the experiment, the biometric characteristics of seedlings were measured weekly. The content of photosynthetic pigments, dry weight, sugars, and polyphenols were analyzed, and the antioxidant activity was assessed in the leaves. The research performed showed that applied biostimulant treatments increased the content of photosynthetic pigments by 10%, the content of sugars by 75%, and the content of polyphenols by 16% compared to the control untreated variant. Between the variants of protein gels tested, the best results were obtained by applying a mixture of bovine gelatin and keratin.

Keywords: protein gels; tomato seedlings; photosynthetic pigments; polyphenols; antioxidant activity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/1/54/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/13/1/54/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:13:y:2022:i:1:p:54-:d:1013633

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().