Unlocking the potential of biostimulants in sustainable agriculture: Effect of wood distillate on the nutritional profiling of apples
Riccardo Fedeli, Maria Dichiara, Gabriele Carullo, Valeria Tudino, Sandra Gemma, Stefania Butini, Giuseppe Campiani, Stefano Loppi
Abstract
In this work, we report the investigation of the effect of exposure of apple trees to the bioeffector wood distillate (WD), a plant biostimulant used for improving the nutritional profiling of crop plants. We measured the effect by evaluating the biochemical and nutritional profile of both pulps and skin of fruits. WD (0.2 %, v/v) was applied once a week by foliar application, from May 2023 until September 2023. The results indicate that the WD-treated apples have a significant increase in several analyzed parameters ( i.e. , phenols, flavonoids, tannins, total antioxidant power, sugars, pectin, free amino acids, and mineral element content), especially in the pulp. These data were also confirmed by NMR and LC-ESI-MS techniques. This study pointed out that WD could be a handy tool for the cultivation of fruit trees. • Wood distillate increases the nutritional content in apple pulp. • A reduction in starch and an increase in sugars was observed in WD-treated pulp. • Pectin content increased in both WD-treated pulp and skin. • WD specifically boosts the amount of tannins and flavonoids. • Secondary metabolites quantified by NMR techniques.