Effect of seaweed liquid fertilizer (SLF) prepared from Sargassum wightii and Hypnea musciformis

on the growth and biochemical constituents of the pulse, Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L).
Keywords:
Seaweed liquid fertilizer (SLF), Cyamopsis tetragonoloba, Sargassum wightii,
Hypnea musciformis.
ABSTRACT:

The effect of Seaweed Liquid Fertilizer (SLF) of Sargassum wightii and Hypnea
musciformis were evaluated on the seedling growth and biochemical parameters of
the pulse, Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L). The seeds of C. tetragonoloba soaked in SLF
performed better when compared to the water soaked controls in terms of growth
and certain biochemical attributes. The seeds were sown in soil and SLF were added
to soil bed in four different concentrations separately (0.5%, 1%, 2% and 5% w/v). C.
tetragonoloba seedlings showed positive response at 0.5% concentration of aqueous
seaweed extracts in almost all the growth parameters studied. Similarly, a significant
increase in the content of photosynthetic pigments and biochemical constituents such
as soluble protein and starch was noted. The use of Sargassum and Hypnea extracts
proved to be effective.
065-070 | JRA | 2012 | Vol 1 | No 1

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www.jagri.info
Journal of Research in
Agriculture
An International Scientific
Research Journal
Authors:
Thambiraj J
1
, Lingakumar
K
2
and Paulsamy S
3
.

Institution:
1. Department of Botany,
Gobi Arts and Science
College, Gobichettipalayam -
638 453, India.

2. Department of Botany,
Ayya Nadar Janaki Ammal
College, Sivakasi- 626 124,
India.

3. Department of Botany,
Kongunadu Arts and Science
College, Coimbatore-
641 029, India.













Corresponding author:
Paulsamy S.


Email:
paulsami@yahoo.com.





Web Address:
http://www.jagri.info
documents/AG0023.pdf.


Dates:
Received: 03 Apr 2012 Accepted: 15 Apr 2012 Published: 23 Apr 2012
Article Citation:
Thambiraj J, Lingakumar K and Paulsamy S.
Effect of seaweed liquid fertilizer (SLF) prepared from Sargassum wightii and Hypnea
musciformis on the growth and biochemical constituents of the pulse, Cyamopsis
tetragonoloba (L).
Iournal of Research in Agriculture (2012) 1: 065-070
Original Research
Journal of Research in Agriculture
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An International Scientific Research Journal


INTRODUCTION
The marine ecosystem is the treasure place for
many natural resources (Anandhan and Sorna kumari,
2011). Seaweeds are among the important marine living
resources with tremendous commercial application. In
recent times, seaweed extract have been used as
fertilizers. These extracts are commonly known as
Seaweed Liquid Fertilizer (SLF). Seaweeds have been
used as manure, cattle feed, food for human consumption
and as a source of phycocolloides such as agar, alginic
acid and carrageenan (Chapman, 1970). Seaweed
extracts as liquid fertilizers(SLF) has come in the market,
for the reason that they contain many growth promoting
hormones like auxins and gibberellins, trace elements
(Fe,Cu,Zn,Co,Mo,Mn,Ni), vitamins, aminoacids etc
(Challen and Hemingway, 1965). Thus, these extracts
when applied to seeds or when added to the soil,
stimulate the seed germination (Blunden, 1971).
Seaweed fertilizer was found to be superior to chemical
fertilizer because of high level of organic matter which
aids in retaining moisture and minerals in the upper soil
level available to the roots (Wallen Kemp, 1955).
Considering the above facts, the present investigation
was carried out to determine the effect of crude extracts
of Sargassum wightii and Hypnea musciformis on growth
and certain biochemical characteristics of the pulse,
Cyamopsis tetragonoloba (L).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Collection of Seaweeds
The seaweeds used in the present study were
Sargassum wightii and Hypnea musciformis belonging to
the classes Phaeophyceae and Rhodophyceae
respectively. They were collected from the coastal area
of Rameswaram, India (9
0
25 N and 79
0
15 E). The
algal species were hand picked and washed thoroughly
with seawater to remove all the unwanted impurities,
adhering sand particles and epiphytes. The thallus of two
algae was placed separately in new polythene bags and
were kept in an ice box containing slush ice and
transported to the laboratory. Then seaweeds were
washed thoroughly using tap water and maximum care
was taken to remove the salt and epiphytes on the surface
of the sample. The water was drained off and the algae
were spread on blotting paper to remove excess water.
Preparation of Seaweed Liquid Fertilizers
The two seaweeds were cut into small pieces
separately, and boiled with 1 liter of distilled water for an
hour and filtered. The filtrate was treated as 100%
concentration of the seaweed extract and from this,
different concentrations of seaweed liquid fertilizers
(SLF) (0.5%, 1%, 2% and 5%) were prepared using
distilled water (Bhosle et al., 1975). As the seaweed
liquid fertilizers contained organic matter, they were
refrigerated between 0 and 4
0
C.
Selection of Crop Plant
The crop plant, selected for the present study was
Cyamopsis tetragonoloba belonging to the family,
Fabaceae. The seeds were collected from Department of
Pulses, Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore.
The seeds with uniform size, colour and weight were
chosen for the experimental purpose. The selected seeds
were stored in a metal tin (Rao, 1976).
Experiment
Five hundred seeds were soaked in water for 24
h. After soaking, they were divided into batches of 100
seeds each and were placed over filter paper kept in
petriplates. One batch of seeds was considered as the
control and they were watered with 10 ml of tap water.
The remaining four batches of seeds were separately
treated with 10 ml of 0.5%, 1%, 2% and 5% of SLF of
Sargassum wightii. After 24 h, the seeds were placed in
soil bed separately and the respective concentration of
SLF was added to the soil bed. Samples were taken from
each set after 30 days. Triplicates were maintained for
each seaweed.
The growth parameters such as shoot length, root
length, total fresh weight and total dry weight were
066 Journal of Research in Agriculture (2012) 1: 065-070
Thambiraj et al., 2012
calculated. The biochemical parameters such as total
chlorophyll and carotenoid were quantified by using the
method of Wellburn and Lichtenthaler (1984). The total
soluble protein content was analyzed by following the
method of Lowry et al. (1951). The content of starch was
estimated by ninhydrin assay method of Jayaraman
(1981). The activities of enzyme such as in vivo nitrate
reductase, catalase and peroxidase were estimated by the
following procedures of Jaworski (1971) Addy and
Goodman (1972) and Kar and Mishra (1976)
respectively.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The data of vegetative growth parameters as
influenced by different concentrations of seaweed liquid
fertilizers of Sargassum wightii and Hypnea musciformis
in the pulse, Cyamopsis tetragonoloba are presented in
Tables 1. It shows that the SLF of both seaweeds at
0.5% concentration are the most optimum for high
growth. The range of variation in this concentration
existing between 9.8 (SLF of Hypnea musciformis) and
11.9 cm (SLF of Sargassum wightii) for shoot length and
4.5 cm (SLF of H. musciformis) and 4.7 cm (SLF of S.
wightii) for root length. However for the seedling dry
weight, both SLF are influencing uniformly (ie) the dry
weight per seedling in 0.5% concentration was noted to
be 0.60 mg in both cases. The increased seedling growth
may be due to the presence of phenyl acetic acid (PAA)
and other closely related compounds (P-CH-PAA) in the
SLF (Taylor and Wilkinson, 1977) as well as the
presence of some growth promoting substances. The
growth enhancing potential of seaweeds might be
attributed to the presence of macro and micronutrients
(Challen and Hemingway, 1965). Another view is that
the wide range of trace elements or micronutrients
present in this seaweed extracts might also responsible
for enhanced growth (Aitken and Senn, 1965). Among
the two seaweed liquid fertilizers, S. wightii liquid
fertilizer yielded better results. The higher concentrations
showed a decreasing trend. Similar results were recorded
in Padina which induced maximum seedling growth at
lower concentrations in Cajanas cajan (Mohan et al.,
1994) Vigna radiate, Zea mays and Phaseolus mungo
(Lingakumar et al., 2004). Dhargalkar and Untawale
(1983) also reported similar findings with Hypnea
musciformis, Spatoglossum asperum, Stoechospermum
marginatum and Sargassum sp. on the vegetative growth
of crop plants like green chillies, turnips and pineapple.
The results of the study revealed that low concentration
(0.5% and 1%) of both seaweed extracts (SLF)
significantly enhanced the vegetative growth parameters
such as shoot length, root length and dry weight of the
seedlings.
The impact of seaweed extracts on certain
biochemical constituents of seedlings of Cyamopsis
tetragonoloba are presented in Table 2. The results of
the study showed that generally the attributes are
influenced significantly by different concentrations of
SLF of Sargassum wightii and Hypnea musciformis. The
lowest concentration of Sargassum wightii at 0.5%
Journal of Research in Agriculture (2012) 1: 065-070 067
Thambiraj et al., 2012
Concentration
(%)
Shoot length (cm/ seedling) Root length (cm/ seedling) Dry weight (mg/ seedling)
SLF of
S. wightii
SLF of
H. musciformis
SLF of
S. wightii
SLF of
H. musciformis
SLF of
S. wightii
SLF of
H. musciformis
Control 8.44 0.09 8.44 0.09 3.1 0.20 3.1 0.20 0.41 0.03 0.41 0.03
0.5 11.9
a
0.28 9.8
ab
0.09 4.7
ab
0.12 4.5
a
.0.10 0.60
cd
0.03 0.60
ab
0.04
1 11.6
a
0.61 9.6
ab
0.41 3.9
a
0.12 4.1
a
0.16 0.58
bc
0.04 0.50
a
0.04
2 9.96
a
0.19 8.9
ab
0.74 3.6
a
0.71 3.8
a
0.41 0.55
ab
0.05 0.49
a
0.03
5 8.8
a
0.16 7.8
a
0.27 3.0
a
0.26 2.9
a
0.08 0.47
a
0.10 0.47
a
0.04
Table 1. Effect of sea weed liquid fertilizers (SLF) of Sargassum wightii and Hypnea musciformis
on growth parameters of Cyamopsis tetragonoloba.
Means in column followed by different letter are significant to each other at 5% level according to DMRT.
enhanced the total chlorophyll content of the pulse to
1.93 mg/g, soluble protein to 6.12 mg/g and starch to
3.02 mg/g. With the treatment of SLF of Hypnea
musciformis at 0.5% concentration, these attributes were
raised to 1.81 mg/g, 6.02 mg/g and 3.01 mg/g
respectively. Higher concentrations of both SLF
decreased the chlorophyll content. A similar kind of
observation was made in Scytonema sp. (Venkataraman
Kumar and Mohan, 1997a) and in Vigna mungo
(Venkataraman Kumar and Mohan, 1997b). Blunden et
al. (1996)

observed that the seaweed extract applied as
foliar spray enhanced the leaf chlorophyll level in many
crop plants. The increase in the protein and starch
contents at lower concentration of SLF of both algae
might be due to absorption of most of the necessary
elements by the seedlings (Kannan and Tamilselvan,
1990; Anantharaj and Venkatesalu, 2001). The changes
in pH by the influence of higher concentration SLF may
retard the absorption of necessary elements in certain
species which may result in lower content of protein and
starch in that seedlings (Aitken and Senn, 1965).
Similar to growth and biochemical parameters,
the activity of the enzymes such as nitrate reductase,
catalase and peroxidase in the pulse, Cyamopsis
tetragonoloba were also determined to be highly
influenced by various concentrations of SLF of
Sargassum sp. and Hypnea sp. (Table 3). However, the
higher concentrations of SLF of both algae at 5%
significantly increased the catalase and peroxidase
activity (0.024 and 0.022 moles H
2
O
2
/mg protein/min
respectively for catalase activity and 95.80 and 92.95
moles H
2
O
2
/mg protein /min respectively for peroxidase
activity). On the other hand, the in vitro nitrate reductase
activity was higher in the seedlings of the studied pulse
grown by the influence of lower concentration of 0.5%
SLF of both algae (1.26 and 1.24 moles/hr respectively
for SLF of S. wightii and H. musciformis). This
variation in activity may be due to species specific
068 Journal of Research in Agriculture (2012) 1: 065-070
Thambiraj et al., 2012
Concentration
(%)
Total Chlorophyll (mg/g leaf
weight)
Soluble protein (mg/g leaf
fresh weight)
Starch (mg/g leaf fresh
weight)
SLF of
S. wightii
SLF of
H. musciformis
SLF of
S. wightii
SLF of
H. musciformis
SLF of
S. wightii
SLF of
H. musciformis
Control 1.424 0.004 1.424 0.004 4.62 0.060 4.62 0.060 2.15 0.01 2.15 0.01
0.5 1.927
cd
0.003 1.809
a
0.004 6.12
c
0.14 6.02
c
0.08 3.02
b
0.21 3.01
b
0.08
1 1.730
bc
0.005 1.633
a
0.003 5.82
b
0.05 5.70
b
0.10 2.90
a
0.24 2.85
a
0.21
2 1.618
ab
0.002 1.481
a
0.004 5.21
b
0.02 5.11
b
0.41 2.64
a
0.12 2.52
a
0.41
5 1.441
a
0.001 1.313
a
0.004 4.21
a
0.01 4.42
a
0.20 2.08
a
0.04 2.10
a
0.16
Table 2. Effect of sea weed liquid fertilizers (SLF) of Sargassum Wightii and Hypnea musciformis on
chlorophyll content and certain biochemical constituents in Cyamopsis tetragonoloba.
Means in column followed by different letter are significant to each other at 5% level according to DMRT.
Table 3. Effect of sea weed liquid fertilizers (SLF) of Sargassum Wightii and Hypnea musciformis on
certain enzymatic activity in the seedlings of Cyamopsis tetragonoloba.
Concentration
(%)
In vivo nitrate reductase
( moles /hr)
Catalase activity
( moles H
2
O
2
/mg protein /min)
Peroxidase activity
( moles H
2
O
2
/mg protein /min)
SLF of
S. wightii
SLF of
H. musciformis
SLF of
S. wightii
SLF of
H. musciformis
SLF of
S. wightii
SLF of
H. musciformis
Control 0.93 0.01 0.93 0.01 0.018 0.02 0.018 0.02 65.80 0.12 65.80 0.12
0.5 1.26
b
0.20 1.24
b
0.16 0.017
c
0.01 0.016
b
0.01 76.50
b
0.14 61.97
a
0.56
1 1.18
b
0.04 1.13
b
0.04 0.019
c
0.10 0.019
b
0.04 82.16
c
0.89 80.63
bc
0.61
2 1.08
b
0.18 1.04
b
0.12 0.021
d
0.04 0.021
c
0.10 91.74
de
0.99 85.42
c
0.18
5 0.89
a
0.02 0.86
a
0.06 0.024
d
0.06 0.022
c
0.14 95.80
f
0.29 92.95
d
0.93
Means in column followed by different letter are significant to each other at 5% level according to DMRT.
requirement of certain vitamins (Anantharaj and
Venkatesalu, 2002). The similar trends of results were in
the Sargassum sp. liquid fertilizer treated seedlings of Z.
mays and P. mungo and Ulva lactuca liquid fertilizer
treated seedlings of Cyamopsis tetragonoloba and
Phaseolus mungo (Lingakumar et al., 2004 and 2006).

CONCLUSION
A holistic approach on the effectiveness of seaweeds
viz., S. wightii and H. musciformis in the present study as
evidenced by the increase in physiological and yield
attributes could be related to growth promoter mediated
reactions leading to higher nutrient uptake, resulting in
higher yield. Hence, this simple practice of application of
ecofriendly seaweed liquid fertilizers to the pulse
Cyamopsis tetragonoloba is recommended to the
growers for attaining better germination, growth and
yield.

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