Nanotechnology on breaking corm dormancy in elephant foot yam [amorphophallus paeoniifolius (dennst.) Nicolson]

Nanotechnology is a fast developing science which has various applications in agriculture. Nanoparticles are broadly defined as the small particles with at least one-dimension size between 1 and 100 nm in diameter. Nanomaterials have the potential to penetrate the seed coat and enhance the ability of absorption and utilization of water, which stimulates enzymatic system and ultimately improves germination and seedling growth. The present study was undertaken to investigate the effects of nanoparticles and commercially used chemicals on breaking dormancy of Amorphophallus corms.

Silver (Ag), zinc oxide (ZnO), titanium dioxide (TiO₂), cerium oxide (CeO) and zero valent iron (ZVI) nanoparticles were synthesized successfully using chemical method and characterized for its size, shape and properties using Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM), Transmission Electron Microscope (TEM), Particle Size Analyzer (PSA) and Raman spectroscopy. Freshly harvested corms of Amorphophallus were treated with different concentrations (50 and 100 mg kg⁻¹) of these five nanoparticles and commercially used chemicals viz., thiourea (100 and 200 mg kg⁻¹) and potassium nitrate (1000 and 2000 mg kg⁻¹), with three different soaking periods (2, 4 and 6 h).

The analysed data indicated that corms treated with ZnO @ 100 mg kg⁻¹ for six hours registered the minimum number of days (47.0 days) for sprout emergence. The maximum sprout length (23.50 cm), sprout diameter (6.35 cm), pseudo stem length (31.00 cm), pseudo stem girth (7.35 cm) and vigour index (1591.7) were recorded in TiO₂ @ 50 mg kg⁻¹ for two hours.