Foliar-applied iron and zinc nanoparticles improved plant growth, phenolic compounds, essential oil yield, and rosmarinic acid production of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.)

Samaneh Farnoosh; Nahid Masoudian; Akbar Safipour Afshar; Fatemeh Saeid Nematpour; Bostan Roudi

doi:10.1007/s11356-024-33680-5

Foliar-applied iron and zinc nanoparticles improved plant growth, phenolic compounds, essential oil yield, and rosmarinic acid production of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.)

Environ Sci Pollut Res Int. 2024 May 17. doi: 10.1007/s11356-024-33680-5. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Samaneh Farnoosh¹, Nahid Masoudian¹, Akbar Safipour Afshar², Fatemeh Saeid Nematpour³, Bostan Roudi¹

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biology, Damghan Branch, Islamic Azad University, Damghan, Iran.
² Department of Biology, Neyshabur Branch, Islamic Azad University, Neyshabur, Iran. asafshar@iau-neyshabur.ac.ir.
³ Department of Biology, Neyshabur Branch, Islamic Azad University, Neyshabur, Iran.

PMID: 38758440
DOI: 10.1007/s11356-024-33680-5

Abstract

Metallic nanoparticles (NPs) have been highlighted to improve plant growth and development in the recent years. Although positive effects of some NPs have been reported on medicinal plants, the knowledge for stimulations application of iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) NPs is not available. Hence, the present work aimed to discover the effects of Fe NPs at 10, 20, and 30 mg L^-1 and Zn NPs at 60 and 120 mg L^-1 on growth, water content, photosynthesis pigments, phenolic content, essential oil (EO) quality, and rosmarinic acid (RA) production of lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.). The results showed that Fe NPs at 20 and 30 mg L^-1 and Zn NPs at 120 mg L^-1 significantly improved biochemical attributes. Compared with control plants, the interaction of Fe NPs at 30 mg^-1 and Zn NPs at 120 mg L^-1 led to noticeable increases in shoot weight (72%), root weight (92%), chlorophyll (Chl) a (74%), Chl b (47%), RA (66%), proline (81%), glycine betaine (GB, 231%), protein (286%), relative water content (8%), EO yield (217%), total phenolic content (63%), and total flavonoid content (57%). Heat map analysis revealed that protein, GB, EO yield, shoot weight, root weight, and proline had the maximum changes upon Fe NPs. Totally, the present study recommended the stimulations application of Fe NPs at 20-30 mg L^-1 and Zn NPs at 120 mg L^-1 to reach the optimum growth and secondary metabolites of lemon balm.

Keywords: Foliar nutrition; Metallic nanoparticles; Plant performance; Secondary metabolites.