BIOSTIMULANT EFFECT OF SPIRULINA (ARTHROSPIRA PLATENSIS) ON LETTUCE (LACTUCA SATIVA) CULTIVATED UNDER AQUAPONIC SYSTEM.

Volume 7, Issue 1, February 2022     |     PP. 23-40      |     PDF (505 K)    |     Pub. Date: March 16, 2022
DOI: 10.54647/biology18204    90 Downloads     5842 Views  

Author(s)

J.O. Siringi, Department of Animal Sciences Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), P. O. Box 62000, Nairobi, 00200, Kenya.
Losenge Turoop, Department of Horticulture and Food Security, Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), P. O. Box 62000, Nairobi, 00200, Kenya.
Francis Njonge, Department of Animal Sciences Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT), P. O. Box 62000, Nairobi, 00200, Kenya.

Abstract

Indoor experiments were carried out to examine the effect of spirulina (Arthrospira platensis) stimulant on growth performance and biochemical response of lettuce (Lactuca sativa) grown in an aquaponic system. The lettuce plants, 10.45±0.12cm (Mean ± SD), were randomly distributed and transplanted into four treatments consisting of 0 (control), 4.0, 8.0, and 12.0g spirulina/L of water and replicated four times. The treatments were administered once every week in form of a foliar spray for 5 weeks. The effect of spirulina stimulant on Leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, dry matter, and antioxidants content of L. sativa in the aquaponic system was determined.
Analysis with polynomial contrasts showed that the quadratic trend for the number of leaves significantly (p <0.05) increased with a peak at 8 g of spirulina/L of water. The cubic trend for final leaf length, width, and leaf area was significantly (p <0.05) increased with a peak at 8 g of spirulina/L of water. The contrasts analysis showed a significant (p <0.05) linear increment for dry weight with a peak at 12 g of spirulina/L of water. For antioxidant contents, the contrasts analysis showed a linear increase for the FRAP, quadratic increase for the DPPH, cubic increase for the ABTS, and quadratic increase for the Total phenols of L. sativa.
The results above show that the application of spirulina (A. platensis) foliar spray has a positive effect on the growth performance and biochemical properties of lettuce (L. sativa) grown in an aquaponic system.

Keywords
Antioxidants, Lactuca sativa, aquaponic system, spirulina.

Cite this paper
J.O. Siringi, Losenge Turoop, Francis Njonge, BIOSTIMULANT EFFECT OF SPIRULINA (ARTHROSPIRA PLATENSIS) ON LETTUCE (LACTUCA SATIVA) CULTIVATED UNDER AQUAPONIC SYSTEM. , SCIREA Journal of Biology. Volume 7, Issue 1, February 2022 | PP. 23-40. 10.54647/biology18204

References

[ 1 ] Abd El-RheemKh, M., Zaghloul, S. and Essa, E., 2015. The stimulant effect of the. Spirulina algae under low levels of nitrogen fertilization on wheat plants grown in sandy soils, 8(12), pp.87-91.
[ 2 ] Asghari, A., Fazilati, M., Latifi, A.M., Salavati, H. and Choopani, A., 2016. A review on antioxidant properties of Spirulina. Journal of Applied Biotechnology Reports, 3(1), pp.345-351.
[ 3 ] Anitha, L., Kalpana, P. and Bramari, G.S., 2016. Evaluation of Spirulina platensis as microbial inoculants to enhanced protein levels in Amaranthus gangeticus. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 11(15), pp.1353-1360.
[ 4 ] Aung, K.L.N., 2011. Effect of Spirulina biofertilizer suspension on growth and yield of Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek. Univ Res J, 4(1), pp.351-363.
[ 5 ] Bittsanszky, A., Uzinger, N., Gyulai, G., Mathis, A., Junge, R., Villarroel, M., Kotzen, B. and Kőmíves, T., 2016. Nutrient supply of plants in aquaponic systems. Ecocycles, 2(2), pp.17-20.
[ 6 ] Bunning, M. and Kendall, P., 2012. Salad greens: Health benefits and safe handling (Doctoral dissertation, Colorado State University. Libraries).
[ 7 ] Buzby, K.M. and Lin, L.S., 2014. Scaling aquaponic systems: Balancing plant uptake with fish output. Aquacultural Engineering, 63, pp.39-44.
[ 8 ] Eck, M., Körner, O. and Jijakli, M.H., 2019. Nutrient cycling in aquaponics systems. In Aquaponics Food Production Systems (pp. 231-246). Springer, Cham.
[ 9 ] Goddek, S., Delaide, B., Mankasingh, U., Ragnarsdottir, K.V., Jijakli, H. and Thorarinsdottir, R., 2015. Challenges of sustainable and commercial aquaponics. Sustainability, 7(4), pp.4199-4224.
[ 10 ] Hegazi, A.Z., Mostafa, S.S. and Ahmed, H.M., 2010. Influence of different cyanobacterial application methods on growth and seed production of common bean under various levels of mineral nitrogen fertilization. Nature and Science, 8(11), pp.183-194.
[ 11 ] Hooper, L. and Cassidy, A., 2006. A review of the health care potential of bioactive compounds. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, 86(12), pp.1805-1813.
[ 12 ] Kim, D.E., Shang, X., Assefa, A.D., Keum, Y.S. and Saini, R.K., 2018. Metabolite profiling of green, green/red, and red lettuce cultivars: Variation in health beneficial compounds and antioxidant potential. Food Research International, 105, pp.361-370.
[ 13 ] Korner, O., Gutzmann, E. and Kledal, P.R., 2015, July. A dynamic model simulating the symbiotic effects in aquaponic systems. In International Symposium on New Technologies and Management for Greenhouses-GreenSys2015 1170 (pp. 309-316).
[ 14 ] Krishnaveni, R., Palanivelu, K. and Velavan, S., 2013. Effects of probiotics and spirulina supplementation on haemato-immunological function of Catla catla. International Journal of Research in Fisheries and Aquaculture, 3:176-181. Available at: http://urpjournals.com/tocjnls/35_13v3i4_10.pdf [Accessed on 11 October2018].
[ 15 ] Kwena, K., Ndegwa, W., Esilaba, A.O., Nyamwaro, S.O., Wamae, D.K., Matere, S.J., Kuyiah, J.W., Ruttoh, R.J. and Kibue, A.M., 2015. Climate Change Adaptation Planning in Kenya: Do Scientific Evidences Really Count? In Adapting African agriculture to climate change (pp. 35-42). Springer, Cham.
[ 16 ] Manach, C., Scalbert, A., Morand, C., Rémésy, C. and Jiménez, L., 2004. Polyphenols: food sources and bioavailability. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 79(5), pp.727-747.
[ 17 ] Osumba, J. and Rioux, J., 2015. Scoping study on climate-smart agriculture in Kenya: Smallholder integrated crop-livestock farming systems. Mitigation of Climate Change in Agriculture (MICCA) Programme Background report, 8.
[ 18 ] Presnov, E., Albright, L.D. and Dayan, E., 2005, May. Methods to estimate and calculate lettuce growth. In III International Symposium on Applications of Modelling as an Innovative Technology in the Agri-Food Chain; MODEL-IT 674 (pp. 305-312).
[ 19 ] Ray, D.K., Mueller, N.D. and Paul, C., 2013. West, and Jonathan A. Foley. Yield trends are insufficient to double global crop production by, 2050, pp.1-8. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0066428
[ 20 ] Thaipong, K., Boonprakob, U., Crosby, K., Cisneros-Zevallos, L. and Byrne, D.H., 2006. Comparison of ABTS, DPPH, FRAP, and ORAC assays for estimating antioxidant activity from guava fruit extracts. Journal of food composition and analysis, 19(6-7), pp.669-675.
[ 21 ] Uddin, A.F.M.J., Rakibuzzaman, M., naher Wasin, E.W., Husna, M.A. and Mahato, A.K., 2019. Foliar application of Spirulina and Oscillatoria on growth and yield of okra as bio-fertilizer. Journal of Bioscience and Agriculture Research, 22(02), pp.1840-1844.
[ 22 ] Zapata-Vahos, I.C., Rojas-Rodas, F., David, D., Gutierrez-Monsalve, J.A. and Castro-Restrepo, D., 2020. Comparison of antioxidant contents of green and red leaf lettuce cultivated in hydroponic systems in greenhouses and conventional soil cultivation. Revista Facultad Nacional de Agronomía Medellín, 73(1), pp.9077-9088.