Protection of soybean by orange peel extract and its nanocapsules against ethyl methanesulfonate damages

Abstract

Citrus fruits are one of the most important sources of phenolic substances, known as antioxidants and protector agents against ethyl methanesulfonate (EMS). Orange peels were used to extract bioactive compounds such as phenols, in addition to evaluate antioxidant activity of the extracts. Soybean plant was used to study the effect of several concentrations (0.01, 0.1 and 1%) of orange peel water extract as protector material to which EMS (0.7%) was added, as well as nanoencapsulated extract at 0.1%. Several parameters were measured to evaluate the effect of these concentrations on soybean as germination rate, plant height, number of leaves, leaves characteristics, total number of flowers after 40 days from germination, number of pods per plant, number of seeds per plant, number of seeds per pod and weight of 100 seeds. The results showed that 1% of orange peel water extract had the highest protective effect, however no positive effect was detected when it was used without EMS. Using 0.01% of orange peels extract was indeed advantageous for plant growth. On the other hand, pectin-calcium nanoencapsulated extract at 0.1% showed better effectiveness when compared to non-encapsulated extract at the same concentration. These results revealed that using plant extracts could be a promising approach to protect plants from harmful substances existing in some mediums (tissue culture) and environments.