Field demonstration of irradiated sodium alginate as tea production booster

Mohammad Afzal Hossain; Jahid M M Islam; Md Mozammel Hoque; Shamsun Nahar; Mubarak A Khan

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05881

Field demonstration of irradiated sodium alginate as tea production booster

Heliyon. 2021 Jan 4;7(1):e05881. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e05881. eCollection 2021 Jan.

Authors

Mohammad Afzal Hossain^{1

2}, Jahid M M Islam^{2

3}, Md Mozammel Hoque¹, Shamsun Nahar⁴, Mubarak A Khan²

Affiliations

¹ Department of Food Engineering and Tea Technology, Shahjalal University of Science and Technology, Sylhet 3114, Bangladesh.
² Institute of Radiation and Polymer Technology, Bangladesh Atomic Energy Commission, P. O. Box-3787, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
³ School of Science, Monash University Malaysia, Bandar Sunway, Subang Jaya, Malaysia.
⁴ Environmental Biotechnology Division, National Institute of Biotechnology, Savar, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Abstract

Sodium alginate oligomers were tested for tea plant growth promoter and anti-fungal agent in this experiment. Sodium alginate solutions were irradiated by Co-60 gamma radiation with different radiation doses to produce the oligomers. Irradiated solutions were then diluted into 150, 300 and 500 ppm prior to foliar application. Solutions were applied through foliar spraying at 7 days interval and the best response of tea plants in terms of various attributes were recorded. Tea buds were collected in 10 days of interval and the growth attributes like- total number of buds, fresh weight of buds, average leaf area and weight per bud, weight of made tea etc. were calculated. The experiment was continued up to 12 weeks and the attributes were averaged to get results per plucking. 12 kGy radiation doses along with 300ppm solution showed the best results and about 36% increase in productivity was found based on the fresh weight of buds. Total fungal count in tea leaves was also found to be reduced greatly. Based on the present study, irradiated sodium alginate could be used as safe and environmentally friendly agent to increase tea production.

Keywords: Gamma radiation; Growth promoting activity; Natural growth promoter; Sodium alginate; Tea production.