A novel cultivation platform of duckweed (Lemna minor) via application of beeswax superhydrophobic coatings.

Autor: Chua MX; School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia., Cheah YT; School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia., Tan WH; School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia., Chan DJC; School of Chemical Engineering, Universiti Sains Malaysia, 14300, Nibong Tebal, Penang, Malaysia. Electronic address: chderekchan@usm.my.
Jazyk: angličtina
Zdroj: Environmental research [Environ Res] 2023 May 01; Vol. 224, pp. 115544. Date of Electronic Publication: 2023 Feb 21.
DOI: 10.1016/j.envres.2023.115544
Abstrakt: Conventional establishment of laboratory cultures of duckweed Lemna minor are prepared in beakers, Erlenmeyer flasks or Schott bottles. These conventional cultivation methods limit the available surface area for growth which then causes layering of fronds that reduces the efficiency of plants in sunlight capturing. Here, acrylic sheets were spray-coated with a superhydrophobic (SHP) beeswax suspension and these coated acrylic sheets were used as a novel cultivation platform for L. minor. L. minor was grown for 7 days in conventional glass jar which acted as the control and were compared to SHP coated acrylic (SHPA) and SHP coated acrylic with aluminium mesh centrally placed (SHPAM) at similar duration and cultivation conditions. Addition of mesh was to entrap the plantlets and fixed the plantlets' position on the growing platform. The effects of cultivation platforms on growth rate and biochemical compositions of L. minor were monitored. The highest biomass growth was obtained from SHPA cultivation where the relative growth rate (RGR) was 0.0909 ± 0.014 day -1 and the RGR was 2.17 times higher than the control. Moreover, L. minor harvested from SHPA displayed the highest values in total protein content, total carbohydrates content and crude lipid percentage. The values were 156.04 ± 12.13 mg/g, 94.75 ± 9.02 mg/g and 7.09 ± 1.14% respectively. However, the control showed the highest total chlorophyll content which was 0.7733 ± 0.042 mg/g FW. Although SHPA obtained a slightly lower chlorophyll content than the control, this growing platform is still promising as it displayed the highest growth rate as well as other biochemical composition. Hence, this study proved that the proposed method that applied superhydrophobic properties in cultivation of L. minor provided a larger surface area for L. minor to grow, which then resulted in a greater biomass production while simultaneously maintaining the quality of the biochemical compositions of duckweeds.
Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
(Copyright © 2023 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)
Databáze: MEDLINE
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