Advanced Research Journal of Biochemistry Sciences Vol. 1 (1), pp. 018-028, September, 2013.© Advanced Scholars Journals

Full Length Research Paper

Changes in some biochemical characteristics in response to foliar applications of chelator and micronutrients in green pungent pepper

Manas Denre¹*, P. K. Bandopadhyay², A. Chakravarty¹, S. Pal¹ and A. Bhattacharya¹

¹Department of Agricultural Biochemistry,  Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal, India. ²Department of Plant Physiology,  Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected]

 Accepted 22 August, 2013

 Abstract

In order to study the changes in some biochemical characteristics in response to foliar applications of chelator [humic acid: HA₁ (0%) and HA₂ (0.05%)] and micronutrients [manganese: Mn₁ (0%); Mn₂ (0.05%) and molybdenum: Mo₁ (0%); Mo₂ (0.01%)] in green pungent pepper cv. Bullet (Capsicum annum L.), a pot experiment in factorial randomized block design with three replications was conducted in the net house of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Mohanpur, Nadia, West Bengal and India. In this experiment, we analyzed some carbohydrate constituents, non enzymatic antioxidants, enzymatic antioxidants and total antioxidant activity. Obtained results show that the highest values of reducing sugar, total sugar and starch were exhibited by applications of HA₂Mn₂, HA₁Mn₂ and HA₂Mo₂, respectively. The ascorbic acid contents significantly increased in treatments of HA₂ and Mn₂. The highest value of total phenol content was obtained by application of HA₂Mo₁, while there was significant increase in the application of HA₂, HA₂Mn₂ and HA₂Mo₂ in the case of free phenol. The highest value of carotene content was obtained by foliar application of HA₂Mn₂, whereas in the case of capsaicin content, there was significant increase in all treatments, except Mo application alone. The highest activity of peroxidase (POD), polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and catalase (CAT) were exhibited by the treatments HA₂Mo_2, HA₂Mo₁ and HA₂Mo₂, respectively. The total antioxidant activity was expressed as molybdate reducing antioxidant power (MRAP). The MRAP values were increased significantly by the foliar application of HA₂. Total phenol, free phenol, capsaicin, polyphenol oxidase and total antioxidant activity had a significant positive association with ascorbic acid. Based on principal component analysis and average values, foliar application of HA₂Mn₂ and HA₂Mo₂ had good performers with respect to all variables, which may bring about the proper value addition in quality of green pungent pepper by enhancing the carbohydrate constituents, antioxidant constituents and antioxidant activities.

Key words: Capsicum annum L., chelator, micronutrients, carbohydrates, antioxidants, enzymes, molybdate reducing antioxidant power.