Influence of Zinc Oxide Nano Spray on the Growth and Development of Bryophyllum pinnatum

Background and objectives: Zinc oxide (ZnO) is one of the best applied nanoscale technologies in agriculture. It showed both positive and negative effects on plant growth. The current study aimed to evaluate the effect of ZnO NPs positive or negative effect as a foliar fertilizer on the growth and development of Brophyllum pinnatum seedlings and which concentration play a crucial role in its positivity Methods: The study was conducted as completely randomized design to detect the effect of three levels of green ZnO NPs foliar spray; 0.20, 0.40 and 0.60 ppm as compared to control on some physiological anatomical characters of Brophyllum pinnatum seedlings. Results: The results had obtained showed that maximum stem height 32.33 and 44.00 cm due to 0.60 ppm after first and second sprays over control. The same level led to a significant increase in leaf area, shoot dry weight (SDW), root dry weight (RDW), total seedling dry weight (TDW) and root: shoot (R:S) ratio; 58.67 cm2, 1.60 g, 0.44 g and 2.09 g and 3.79 respectively. The highest chlorophyll a, b and total recorded duo to 0.40 ppm; 0.72, 0.04 and 0.76 mg g-1 of fresh leaves respectively. The transverse sections prepared by paraffin methods shows the anatomy of plant parts such as stem, petiole and leaf effect with treated by ZnO NPs; through two Periods (30 days, and 60 days). 0.40 and 0.60 ppm represent the best promoter of the physiological behavior and anatomical characters; midrib, petiole, lamina and stem anatomy. Conclusions: It could be concluded that foliar application with green ZnO NPs behaved as a growth promoter for Brophyllum pinnatum. 0.40 and 0.60 ppm represent the best concentration to enhance best performance in the plant body that affect the physiological behavior and anatomical characters