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Fruitonic® Vita: Crop Multi-Vitamins

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Fruitonic® Vita – Crop Multi-Vitamins

The agricultural sector has encountered many challenges in recent decades, such as climate change, changes in dietary preferences, and the significant increase in the world’s population. These challenges lead to the need to adopt new sustainable agriculture practices.

Agrology, responding to these challenges, advances to the next step of the specialized plant nutrition, introducing the term Functional Crop Nutrition® with the main objective to develop strategies to increase production through the optimal utilization of the essential nutrients and Beneficial Elements from plants, such as, the vitamins. 

Agrology’s new product line Fruitonic®, features Bio-activators based on 20 free L-amino acids, oligopeptides, and proteins, enhanced with organic bioactive ingredients and/or selected trace elements. Fruitonic Vita is a blend of high concentrated free L-amino acids and vegetable peptides enhanced with a complex of 3 vitamins (Vit B1, B2 and C). Fruitonic® Vita is an ideal product at any crop growth stage to increase the yield of crops and improve the quality of products.

Plants need their vitamins too.

The term “vitamin” was coined by Casimir Funk, in 1912, who isolated thiamine (Vitamin B1) from rice husks. Vitamins are molecules that are not synthesized by animals and are obtained through diet. Vitamin deficiency causes diseases that can be serious, even fatal. Vitamin deficiency disorders include blindness (vitamin A), anemia (vitamin B6), scurvy (vitamin C), etc.

However, plant vitamins and their significance are often overlooked. Plants do not actually synthesize vitamins for the benefit of animals as these compounds play an essential role in their own metabolism.

Vitamins are a diverse group of organic molecules, most of which are not actually amines. Fat-soluble vitamins (vitamins A, E and K) provide significant antioxidant activity in plants. Recent evidence suggests that vitamin B compounds also play an important role as antioxidants in plants. Water-soluble vitamins (vitamins B and C) or compounds derived from them, act mainly as enzyme cofactors, providing chemistry that cannot be carried out by amino acids. In some cases, a vitamin has one or a few very specific roles, such as biotin (vitamin B7), whereas other vitamins have much more extensive roles.

Plant vitamins are primary metabolites but are usually synthesized in small amounts, making their study difficult. It is only in the past decade that we have begun to dissect vitamin biosynthesis in plants at the molecular level. The focus lies on increasing vitamin levels in plants to enhance their nutritional value.

Ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) – The key vitamin for plant growth and resistance to abiotic stress

Ascorbic acid, or vitamin C, is one of the most common water-soluble antioxidants in plants and animals. It is one of the most extensively studied antioxidants that has been detected in plant cells and organs.

The notorious human disease ‘’scurvy’ is caused mainly by vitamin C deficiency in the human body. As fruits and vegetables are the main source of ascorbic acid in the human diet, the possibility of increasing the content of ascorbic acid in plants contributes to improving their nutritional value. Main sources of vitamin C are vegetables and fruits.

Vitamin C functions as a major redox buffer in plants. It affects various physiological processes that regulate plant growth, plant metabolism, and resistance to abiotic stress. Vitamin C plays a crucial role in plant growth, cell division, cell wall elongation, and other plant development processes. It also functions in combination with other antioxidants to neutralize oxygen free radicals produced in plant respiration. In addition, the application of exogenous vitamin C increases the resistance of plants to salinity stress and reduces oxidative stress.

Thiamin (Vitamin B1) – The unknown Vitamin that affects the nervous system

Thiamine or vitamin B1 is an essential nutritional molecule. Thiamin deficiency is the cause of several diseases, especially neurological disorders. Vitamin B1 is essential for the enzymes that metabolize the glucose in the brain. Glucose is correspondingly necessary for the neurons and brain cell’s function. Plant-based foods, such as legumes, grains, and nuts are predominant sources of vitamin B1

Vitamin B1 is also essential for plants themselves, and the study of its benefits to plants as so far received limited attention. The role of vitamin B1 as a co-enzyme in metabolic pathways is crucial for energy production, carbon assimilation, glycolysis, and respiration. Vitamin B1 is also an important component for improving plant resistance to abiotic and biotic stress. The role of Vitamin B1 in the plant’s resistance to diseases as well as in the improvement of yield, is also important.

Riboflavin (Vitamin B2) – The main Vitamin of B Complex.

Vitamin B2, also known as riboflavin, is one of the eight vitamins of B Complex, which helps the body convert carbohydrates into glucose to produce energy and contributes to fat and protein metabolism. Vitamins of Complex B are necessary for a healthy liver, skin, hair, and eyes. Finally, Vitamin B2 contributes to the proper function of the nervous system. Main sources of Vitamin B2 are cereals, nuts, beans, and some vegetables.

In plants, riboflavin is primarily important as an antioxidant, as it generally stimulates the production of antioxidant components in plant cells. In addition, compounds derived from riboflavin are essential for many enzymes, reducing harmful components for plants, such as hydrogen peroxide. Riboflavin also exhibits a function of faster and stronger activation of plant defense mechanisms against stress conditions. For example, the ability of riboflavin to counteract drought stress has already been described for tobacco plants. Finally, riboflavin is an antioxidant for plants and like other antioxidants, riboflavin confers resistance to plant diseases. Consequently, these characteristics are consistent with the idea that riboflavin may indeed have a role in plant disease resistance.

Amino Acids – Role in Total Plant Performance.

The importance of amino acids in plant growth and stress tolerance has become increasingly evident, as they are the “raw materials” for the synthesis of the plant’s basic structural proteins. They affect numerous physiological processes due to their participation, as metabolites, in the regulation of multiple physiological and biochemical pathways of the plant organism. Amino acids produced by enzymatic hydrolysis have a left-handed orientation and are called L-amino acids, and this form is the only one absorbed by plants.

The use of amino acids is indicated in critical crop growth stages, such as the formation of inflorescences, fruit set, fruit development as well as in the case of intense abiotic and biotic stress.

Using amino acids results in:

  • Increasing plant’s resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses.
  • Enhancing fruit set and total yield
  • Improving quality characteristics of the fruit.
  • Saving energy from the plant.
  • Improving the development of the root system.
  • Enhancing chlorophyll synthesis that improves the photosynthetic capacity of the plant.

Why Fruitonic® Vita?

  • Unique combination of free L-amino acids and 3 vitamins.
  • 20 different L-amino acids (counter-clockwise), readily absorbed by plants.
  • Plant-derived enzymatically hydrolyzed proteins.
  • Promotes the production of proteins, enzymes, and hormones.
  • Increases the resistance of plants to stress conditions (frost, dry heat conditions, etc.).
  • Vit C, Vit B1, Vit B2 – Stimulate strong antioxidant action.
  • Vit C, Vit B1, Vit B2 – Increase cell divisions and elongation of cell walls.
  • Compatible with Organic Farming

Fruitonic® Vita is the ideal product at any crop growth stage for most crops when aiming to increase the yield and improve the quality of the products.

To be used safely | Always read the product label before use | Pay attention to the warning phrases and symbols on the label.

Bibliography

Asensi-Fabado, M. A., & Munné-Bosch, S. (2010). Vitamins in plants: occurrence, biosynthesis and antioxidant function. Trends in plant science15(10), 582-592.

D’Mello, J. F. (Ed.). (2015). Amino acids in higher plants. CABI.

Dolatabadian, A., Sanavy, S. M., & Chashmi, N. A. (2008). The effects of foliar application of ascorbic acid (vitamin C) on antioxidant enzymes activities, lipid peroxidation and proline accumulation of canola (Brassica napus L.) under conditions of salt stress. Journal of Agronomy and Crop Science194(3), 206-213.

Dong, H., & Beer, S. V. (2000). Riboflavin induces disease resistance in plants by activating a novel signal transduction pathway. Phytopathology90(8), 801-811.

Fitzpatrick, T. B., & Chapman, L. M. (2020). The importance of thiamine (vitamin B1) in plant health: From crop yield to biofortification. Journal of Biological Chemistry295(34), 12002-12013.

Goyer, A. (2010). Thiamine in plants: aspects of its metabolism and functions. Phytochemistry71(14-15), 1615-1624.

Guhr, A., Horn, M. A., & Weig, A. R. (2017). Vitamin B2 (riboflavin) increases drought tolerance of Agaricus bisporus. Mycologia109(6), 860-873.

Hossain, M. A., Munné-Bosch, S., Burritt, D. J., Diaz-Vivancos, P., Fujita, M., & Lorence, A. (Eds.). (2017). Ascorbic acid in plant growth, development and stress tolerance (p. 514). Basel, Switzerland:: Springer International Publishing.

Kaya, C., Ashraf, M., Sonmez, O., Tuna, A. L., Polat, T., & Aydemir, S. (2015). Exogenous application of thiamin promotes growth and antioxidative defense system at initial phases of development in salt-stressed plants of two maize cultivars differing in salinity tolerance. Acta physiologiae plantarum37(1), 1-12.

Smith, A. G., Croft, M. T., Moulin, M., & Webb, M. E. (2007). Plants need their vitamins too. Current opinion in plant biology10(3), 266-275.