Dihydroquercetin-based nanoemulsion as a promising biostimulant for enhancing in fruit quality of strawberry

Abstract

Natural biostimulant products that enhance the growth, productivity, and nutritional quality of fruits are becoming increasingly popular, particularly in challenging environmental conditions like fluctuating temperatures, spring frosts, and excessive precipitation. This study aimed to evaluate the effect of the dihydroquercetin-based biostimulant on the yield and fruit quality of the strawberry cultivar 'Alba' grown in an open field condition. Biostimulant application increased strawberry yield, total phenolic content and antioxidant activity, while physical traits, total soluble solids (TSS), titratable acidity (TA), pH, and total sugars (TS), invert sugar (IS) and sucrose (SUC) responded differently to the biostimulant. The application of dihydroquercetin-based nanoemulsion negatively affected the content of TSS, TA, TS and IS but not the external appearance of the strawberry (weight, dimensions, shape, index color and firmness). These data suggested that dihydroquercetin-based treatment might maintain physical traits while improving the content of bioactive compounds of strawberry fruit due to the enhancement of the phenolic content and antioxidant activity.

Naravni biostimulanti, ki izboljšujejo rast, rodnost in notranjo kakovost plodov, postajajo vse bolj pomembni, zlasti pri spreminajočih se klimatskih spremembah , kot so nihanje temperatur, spomladanske pozebe in prevelike količine padavin. Namen te študije je bil oceniti učinek biostimulanta na osnovi dihidrokvercetina na rodnost in kakovost plodov žlahtnega jagodnjaka sorte 'Alba', gojenega na prostem. Uporaba biostimulanta je povečala pridelek, vsebnost skupnih fenolov in antioksidativni potencial, medtem ko so se druge spremenljivke, kot so topna suha snov (TSS), titracijske kisline (TA), pH, vsebnost skupnih sladkorjev (TS), invertnega sladkorja (IS) in saharoza (SUC), različno odzvale na uporabo biostimulanta. Uporaba nanoemulzije na osnovi dihidrokvercetina je negativno vplivala na vsebnost TSS, TA, TS in IS, ne pa na zunanji videz ploda (maso, velikost, obliko, barvo in trdoto). Ti podatki kažejo, da bi lahko uporaba tega biostimulanta ohranila fizikalne lastnosti,hkrati pa povečala vsebnost bioaktivnih snovi v plodovih s povečanjem vsebnosti fenolov in antioksidativne aktivnosti.