Importance of chitosan in agriculture

2. Chitosan in Agricultural Context
Supervisor
Prof. Nirmal De
Speaker
Priyal Pandey
Id. No. PS-13079
Enrolment No.339361
Department of Soil Science & Agril. Chemistry
Institute of Agricultural Sciences
Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi-221 005
Course Seminar
ON

3. Outline
Brief History
Introduction
Sources of chitosan
Properties of chitosan
 Multifarious application of chitosan
in agriculture
Conclusion

4. History
1811- Henry Braconnot identified chitin while conducting
some experiment on mushroom, 1st polysaccharide identified
by man. Chitin is a Greek word meaning tunic or envelope.
1843- Lassaigne showed the presence of nitrogen in chitin.
1859- C.Rouget subjected chitin to alkali treatment and found
properties different from chitin.
1870- Hoppe Seiler has given the term chitosan.
1930- Rammelberg confirmed the sources of chitosan.

5. Sources of Chitosan
Aquatic organism
Shell of Shrimp
Crabs
Bone plates of squid
Terrestial Crustacean
Porcellio scaber
Fungi
Zygomycetes
Gongronella butleri
Mushroom
•Agaricus biosporus
•Pleurotus sajor caju
•Armillaria mellea

7. NaOH treatment
Acetic acid treatment
Solid state fermentation
Submerged fermentation

8. Forms of chitosan

9. Properties of Chitosan
Antimicrobial properties Plant growth promoter Swelling and gelling
Ion binding properties Film forming
Properties

10. Chitosan in Agricultural Context
 Plant defence mechanism
 Plant growth promotion, resistance against
abiotic stress
 As bio pesticide
 Post harvest treatment
 Nutrient delivery mechanism
 Water retention in soil, as soil conditioner
 Heavy metal remediation
 Waste water treatment

11. Application of chitosan
Soil Application Seed Coating Foliar application

12. Chitosan as Elicitor(Plant defence mechanism)
•Activate scavenging of reactive oxygen and
•Act as antioxidant
Chitosan induces accumulation of lignin, callose, phytoalexin, etc
in various plant tissues which helps in plant defence mechanism

13. Active oxygen

14. As antitransparent
M. Iriti et al. / Environmental and Experimental Botany (2009)
66 : 493–500

15. Plant growth Promoter

16. Used for seed coating
 Changes permeability of seed plasma
membrane.
Increase sugar and proline content.
Enhancing peroxidase activity.

17. Seed priming of chitosan under
salt stress
Mahdavi B, Rahimi A (2013) Seed priming with chitosan improves the
germination and growth performance of ajowan (Carum copticum) under salt
stress. Eurasia J Biosci 7: 69-76.

18. Defence against abiotic stress
Farouk and Amadany, Egyptian Journal of Biology, 2012, (14) : 14-26

19. Antimicrobial Property
• Bio Fungicide
• Bio Insecticide
• Bio Nematicide
Note point-
•Antimicrobial Properties depends on molecular weight,
degree of deacetylation, nature of grafting.
•No adverse effect on beneficial micro-organism is
reported.
•Antimicrobial properties increases with increase in
deacetylation so it can be adjusted as per application.

20. Effect of chitosan on
Helicoverpa armigera

21. Enhances shelf life of fruits

22. Changes rhizosphere
population
• Promote growth of Trichoderma spp.
Aspergillus spp., Bacillus subtillis,
Bacillus thurengenesis.
• Act as a Nitrogen containing
polysaccharide

23. Chitosan modification – Graft
Polymerization
Graft polymerization- ‘Grafting’ is a
method wherein monomers are
covalently bonded (modified) onto the
polymer chain.

24. Process of Graft Polymerization

25. Chitosan based urea fertilizer water retention
behaviour
Mohammad et al International Conference on Mechanical Engineering
Research (ICMER2013), 1-3 July 2013
More water
retention

26. Improves slow release of fertilizer
Lubkowski/Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 13 (2014), 10 : 2573-2581

27. Urea slow release behaviour

28. Removal of heavy metals from
contaminated soil
Jiang et al. Open Journal of Soil Science 2011 , 1, 70-76

29. Chitosan as flocculants
Zou et al. 2006 environmental pollution 141 201-205
Removal efficiency of MA cells by chitosan-modified clays, soils and
sediments in nature lake water (pH 7.4).
Wide gap

32. How I am exploring this area
As a source of slow release of potassium
fertilizer in soil.
For enhancement of water retention and water
absorbing behaviour of soil.
Utilize it as a polysaccharide source for
increasing microbial population in soil.
Analyze its effects on Alfalfa plant
physiology.

33. Conclusion
 Chitosan (chitin) is second most abundant
polysaccharide after cellulose.
Chitosan based innovative technologies for
promotion of agriculture may be explored.
This is still not explored to greater extend. So
its greater understanding and application is
warranted.