Impact of Silver Nanoparticles on Lemon Growth Performance: Insecticidal and Antifungal Activities of Essential Oils From Peels and Leaves

Walid F A Mosa; Marwa I Mackled; Nader R Abdelsalam; Said I Behiry; Abdulaziz A Al-Askar; Adriana Basile; Ahmed Abdelkhalek; Mohsen M Elsharkawy; Mohamed Z M Salem

doi:10.3389/fpls.2022.898846

Impact of Silver Nanoparticles on Lemon Growth Performance: Insecticidal and Antifungal Activities of Essential Oils From Peels and Leaves

Front Plant Sci. 2022 May 23:13:898846. doi: 10.3389/fpls.2022.898846. eCollection 2022.

Authors

Walid F A Mosa¹, Marwa I Mackled², Nader R Abdelsalam³, Said I Behiry³, Abdulaziz A Al-Askar⁴, Adriana Basile⁵, Ahmed Abdelkhalek⁶, Mohsen M Elsharkawy⁷, Mohamed Z M Salem⁸

Affiliations

¹ Department of Plant Production (Horticulture-Pomology), Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
² Department of Stored Product Pests, Plant Protection Institute, Agriculture Research Center, Alexandria, Egypt.
³ Department of Agricultural Botany, Faculty of Agriculture, Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.
⁴ Department of Botany and Microbiology, College of Science, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
⁵ Department of Biology, University of Naples Federico II, Naples, Italy.
⁶ Department of Plant Protection and Biomolecular Diagnosis, Arid Lands Cultivation Research Institute (ALCRI), City of Scientific Research and Technological Applications, New Borg El Arab City, Egypt.
⁷ Department of Agricultural Botany, Faculty of Agriculture, Kafrelsheikh University, Kafr El Sheikh, Egypt.
⁸ Department of Forestry and Wood Technology, Faculty of Agriculture (El-Shatby), Alexandria University, Alexandria, Egypt.

Abstract

Ten-year-old lemon (Citrus limon L. cv. Eureka) was used during the 2019 and 2020 seasons to investigate the effect of AgNPs at control, 5, 7.5, and 10 mg/L as a foliar application on vegetative growth, yield, and fruit quality. The selected trees were subjected to agricultural practices applied in the field during the study. The results indicated that the foliar application of AgNPs positively improved the shoot length, total chlorophyll, flower, and fruit set percentage, fruit yield, physical and chemical characteristics of fruits, and leaf mineral composition from macro and micronutrients compared to control in both seasons. The foliar application of AgNPs at 10 mg/L showed the highest mean values followed by 7.5 and 5 mg/L, respectively, for the previous characteristics. The treated leaves and fruit peels were hydrodistillated to extract the essential oils (EOs), and GC-MS analysis of leaf EOs. The analysis of leaves EOs showed the presence of neral, geranial, neryl acetate, and limonene as the main abundant bioactive compounds. While in peel the main compounds were neral, geranial, neryl acetate, D-limonene, geraniol acetate, linalool, and citronellal. Toxin effect of both EOs from leaves and peels were evaluated on the rice weevils (Sitophilus oryzae) and the results indicated a higher effect of lemon peel EOs than leaves based on mortality percentage and the values of LC₅₀ and LC₉₅ mg/L. Melia azedarach wood samples loaded with the produced lemon EOs were evaluated for their antifungal activity against the molecularly identified fungus, Fusarium solani (acc # OL410542). The reduction in mycelial growth was increased gradually with the applied treatments. The most potent activity was found in lemon leaf EOs, while peel EOs showed the lowest reduction values. The mycelial growth reduction percentages reached 72.96 and 52.59%, by 0.1% leaf and peel EOs, respectively, compared with control.

Keywords: AgNPs; Fusarium solani; Sitophilus oryzae; antifungal; essential oils; insecticidal; lemon; yield and fruit quality.