Boosting the nutritional value of edible dahlia flowers with nano-zinc oxide (ZnO)
Main Article Content
Keywords
bioactive compounds; biofortification; functional food; mineral composition; ZnO nanoparticles (ZnO NPs)
Abstract
Edible flowers of dahlia represent a novel source of functional foods, and their nutritional enhancement through agronomic zinc biofortification is scarcely explored. This study establishes, for the first time, the efficacy of foliar-applied zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) as a novel biofortification strategy for this crop. The study compared foliar applications of ZnO NPs with those of zinc sulphate (ZnSO₄) at 50 mg L⁻¹ or 100 mg L⁻¹ in dahlia flowers cv. ‘Yaretzi’. Plants were grown in open-field pots. Levels of bioactive compounds, antioxidant activity, and mineral composition were measured. Results show that ZnO NPs treatment significantly increased chroma by 20% (14.63 ± 0.87), anthocyanins by 40% (0.21 ± 0.02 mg C3G 100 g⁻¹) and Zn content by 37% (49.7 ± 0.57 mg kg⁻¹), compared to the treatment with ZnSO₄. Antioxidant capacity (152.61 ± 2.54 µmol Fe²⁺/g) and protein (5.6 ± 0.03%) and fibre (30.3 ± 0.4%) were also increased. Findings indicate that foliar applications of ZnO NPs exhibit enhanced effectiveness, compared to ZnSO₄, for increasing the nutrient-richness of dahlia flowers. Consequently, foliar application of ZnO NPs emerges as a promising agronomic strategy to cultivate dahlia flowers as a functional food for combating zinc deficiencies, subject to future comprehensive assessment of nanoparticle toxicology in food chain.
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