Agricultural Science Digest

Sodium nitroprusside (SNP) is a common substance used to decrease the harmful effects of abiotic stress and to improve the germination and early seedling growth of crops. However SNP use is limited by its short lifespan and photosensitivity. With this context, current study taken up to that synthesize of SNP loaded chitosan nanoparticles and to standardize for the seed treatment.

SNP loaded chitosan nanoparticles were successfully synthesized by using ionic gelation method. A variety of characterization techniques utilized viz., dynamic light scattering (DLS), Fourier-transform Infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR) and release kinetics. A laboratory experiment was conducted to standardize the ideal SNP nanoformulation dosage for seed treatment in order to minimize the negative impacts of drought stress in maize. The treatments involved soaking seeds in solutions containing various concentrations of SNP nanoformulation, including 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100 μM including control.

The experimental results indicated that, among SNP nanoformulation concentrations, seeds treated with @ 100 μM concentration showed the highest germination percentage (85%), promptness index (82.3%), vigor index (1624%), shoot and root length (8.4 cm and 11 cm), fresh and dry weight of shoot (123.7 and 61.6 mg/20 seedlings) and root (52.6 and 25.0 mg/20 seedlings) respectively, under PEG-induced drought stress conditions compared with control.