Physicochemical Characterization and Effect of Additives of Membrane Vesicles from Brassica oleracea L. to Be Used in Nanofertilization

Traditional fertilizers and their intensive use cause different environmental problems and new strategies are necessary to deal with these aspects. In these sense, foliar nanofertilization is a new technology postulate as one of the most promising to use in the near future. This type of fertilization has many environmental advantages but there are different factors that its necessary to solve, as they need to be compatible with other additives. Membrane vesicles derived from plant material have been showed in preliminary studies by their great potential as nanocarriers of different micronutrients such as iron (Fe) or boron (B). A complete optimization of fertilizer system based on nanocarriers to encapsulate different elements from different approach is key to obtaining a suitable and profitable from an economic point of view. In this work, different physicochemical parameters such as size, potential Z or osmotic water permeability were measured in membrane vesicles obtained from Brassica oleracea L. to check the integrity of vesicles for further biotechnological application. Besides, different additives (polyether-modified-polysiloxane [PMP], Tween 20 and polyethylene glycol [PEG]) were added to vesicles at concentration of application to determine an effect in the integrity and functionality of the membranes. The results show that functionality of membrane vesicles was only reduced with polyether-modified-polysiloxane [PMP], but not altered by the rest of the additives. These analyses serve to support subsequent research to advance the implementation of this nanotechnology.