Unlocking the potential of biostimulants in sustainable agriculture: Effect of wood distillate on the nutritional profiling of apples
Riccardo Fedeli,
Maria Dichiara,
Gabriele Carullo,
Valeria Tudino,
Sandra Gemma,
Stefania Butini,
Giuseppe Campiani,
Stefano Loppi
Affiliations
Riccardo Fedeli
BioAgry Lab, Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy
Maria Dichiara
Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy
Gabriele Carullo
BioAgry Lab, Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy; Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy; Corresponding author. Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy.
Valeria Tudino
Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy; Corresponding author.
Sandra Gemma
BioAgry Lab, Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy; Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy
Stefania Butini
BioAgry Lab, Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy; Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy
Giuseppe Campiani
BioAgry Lab, Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy; Department of Biotechnology, Chemistry and Pharmacy, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy
Stefano Loppi
BioAgry Lab, Department of Life Sciences, University of Siena, 53100, Siena, Italy; National Biodiversity Future Center, Palermo, Italy
In this work, we report the investigation of the effect of exposure of apple trees to the bioeffector wood distillate (WD), a plant biostimulant used for improving the nutritional profiling of crop plants. We measured the effect by evaluating the biochemical and nutritional profile of both pulps and skin of fruits. WD (0.2 %, v/v) was applied once a week by foliar application, from May 2023 until September 2023. The results indicate that the WD-treated apples have a significant increase in several analyzed parameters (i.e., phenols, flavonoids, tannins, total antioxidant power, sugars, pectin, free amino acids, and mineral element content), especially in the pulp. These data were also confirmed by NMR and LC-ESI-MS techniques. This study pointed out that WD could be a handy tool for the cultivation of fruit trees.
