A research team from the Universitat Jaume I in Castelló, led by Carolina Clausell Terol and Aurelio Gómez Cadenas from the Eco-physiology and Biotechnology research group , has developed a biostimulant composition that protects crops against adverse environmental conditions and improves their performance.
The new compound incorporates proline particles encapsulated in silica, an amino acid that protects cellular structures and enhances plants’ ability to tolerate adverse conditions. Its production process, based on aqueous suspension and spray drying, is easily scalable, cost-effective and reproducible, ensuring protection of the active ingredient against thermal degradation and its controlled release.
“The controlled release of proline”, the research team explains, “activates the plant’s natural defence mechanisms and improves its tolerance to drought, high temperatures and salinity, among other types of stress. In this way, damage is reduced and growth and production are maintained".
This biostimulant composition, validated at experimental laboratory scale and protected through a European patent application, is seeking collaboration with companies in the biotechnology and agricultural sectors for its further development and adaptation to specific applications through tailored agreements and a subsequent licensing agreement. In the researchers’ view, “it is a simple technology that can be easily scaled up to industrial level”.
The research carried out to obtain this new compound has been funded by the AGROALNEXT Programme, with the support of the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (MICIN), the European Union NextGenerationEU (PRTR-C17.I1) and the Generalitat Valenciana. In addition to the principal investigators, the team also included Jimmy Sampedro Guerrero and Vanessa Almache Avendaño, members of the same research group.
The Universitat Jaume I, through the Research Management and Knowledge Transfer Service (SEGIT) and the Vice-Rector's Office for Knowledge Transfer, Innovation and Science Communication, facilitates the scientific and technological transfer of its research staff in order to advance its mission of transmitting and disseminating scientific, technical, social and humanistic knowledge.