Patent Application
20250160325
Applicant hereby makes priority claim to a Taiwan application, number 112144619, having the Taiwan filing date of Nov. 17 2023.
Table I (in Sequence Listing XML format) shows the at least 253 peptides and its annotated sequences for the solution generated in accordance with the disclosure of this application. The Sequence Listing XML file complies with the WIPO ST.26 requirements. Said XML copy, created on Mar. 17, 2024, is named Table-I-253_sequence and is 216 bytes in size.
Applicant hereby incorporates by reference said Sequence Listing XML file in its entirety as part of the disclosure and specification of the present application.
Present invention disclosed and claimed the method and application of a keratin hydrolysis peptide (“KHP”) solution for improving the drought tolerance of corn plants, by using the thermally hydrolyzed feather keratin peptide solution to the soil where the corn seedlings are transplanted in. The application of the KHP solutions as taught herein contributed to the drought tolerance of corn seedlings, reduced and minimized the injuries and growth damages suffered by corn plants due to drought conditions, and ultimately improved the overall production yield of corn.
The KHP solution is made by a hydrolysis process using feathers and water, via a high-temperature and high-pressure process, resulting in a solution that has many beneficial applications in the fields of horticulture, agriculture and potentially other farming businesses.
Hydrolyzed keratin has long been used to strengthen hairs, reduce hair splitting and breakage. Other beneficial uses include skin moisturization and wound healing. Keratin hydrolysate has also been known to function as a biofertilizer, boosting plants' growth by enhancing the plants' ability to receive and utilize nutrients, including commonly applied fertilizers.
The corn crops originated from South America, primarily in the tropical regions, with good adaptability to different weather patterns and good for growing in warm, moist areas with ample sun lights. The short growth period of the corn plants makes them good for all-season planting and harvesting.
The recent climate changes have great impacts on agriculture efficiency and production globally. Specifically, the drought conditions brought on by the climate substantially changes affects the corn production. When ambient temperature rises above 35° C., plants' ability to bloom and flower will decrease; when ambient temperature rises above 35° C., the male spikes (stamens) in flowers no longer open up and the pollination to the female spikes (stigmas) can hardly happen. Sustained period of high temperature and drought certainly results in more damages to corns' growth and production.
In the corn agriculture, farmers have come up with different options to deal with the high temperature and drought conditions, such as selecting drought-tolerant species and reduce the growth intensity of corn plants to provide better water accessibility, addition to the ever present fertilizations used to the add nutrients to the soil.
A published Chinese patent CN11116656698A presented a corn gene Zm0001d018037 that is suitable for leaflet crops. An European patent EP2713751A1 disclosed a cultivation style without water where certain plant species can withstand tough drought condition when selected agri-chemical compounds are used in the farming process, resulting in crop production without water irrigation. Another published patent CN111700073A provides a combination mechanism of a seedling with certain accompany agents that help with the drought tolerance of the plants.
However, the technologies stated above are not helpful to the corn-drought problems as the gene, the no-water growing and the seedling combination method are all inapplicable to corns.
The inventors of present application, through their research and experiment, discovered and confirmed that the application of the KHP solution as taught herein is the best and cost-effective way of ameliorating the harms and damages due to the drought conditions.
The keratin solution is primarily based upon feather, which contains 85-91% keratin, 13-15% organic nitrogen, 1.6-2% organic sulfur, as well as other materials. The high keratin content has drawn many prior researches that work to break down, by enzyme, chemical agents, or fermentation process, into peptides, amino acids and other smaller molecules that can be used for animal feeds, plant fertilizers, and cultivation bases.
Around 2019, Nurdiawati, et al, came up with a hydrolysis process, by the mixture of α-amylase and protease to hydrolyze feather waste, resulting in a mixture of amino acids, fatty acids, and sugars. Nurdiawati experimented and adopted certain specific high-temperature and high-pressure setting in the hydrolysis process and discovered that the resulting solution, when mixed with some potassium and other minerals, can boost the growth of Pogostemon cablin and Vigna radiata, as reported in International Journal of Recycling or Organic Waste in Agriculture (8:221-232, 2019).
The inventors of present application, under the aegis of CH Biotech, developed and selected different feather and water compositions to perform the hydrolysis at higher temperature and higher-pressure setting, resulting with different keratin hydrolysis peptide (“KHP”) solution that can be used on different crops/plants.
The selected embodiment of present invention uses a mixture of water and feathers, and subject the mixture to a thermal hydrolysis process to create KHP solutions based upon temperature/pressure parameters as noted below.
The inventors used the Dionex UltiMate 3000 UPLC to separate the peptides; an analysis is done via Thermo Orbitrap Fushion Lumos Tribrid Orbitrap mass spectrometry to identify the peptides, which are then subsequently confirmed by looking up the BIOPEP-UWM database.
The solutions are infused to the soil containing the corn seedlings. The solutions can be diluted with water at ratio of 50-1,000 for applying to the corn seedlings. The preferred range of dilution ratio is between 50-100.
The accompanying drawings, figures and tables, which are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification, illustrate and exemplify the preferred embodiments of the invention. Together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
The keratin hydrolysis peptide (“KHP”) solution of present invention is made by a high-temperature and high-pressure process to treat a mixture of water and feathers as shown in the parameters herein.
The mixture ratio, temperature, pressure and duration parameters are shown herein:
The hydrolysis process, in the embodiment noted as KHP-1 takes the steps of:
The confirmation of some of the 253 peptides is further done by referencing the BIOPEP-UWM database.
The KHP solution can then be applied to the soil containing the corn seeds or seedlings during the early growth stage. For purpose of this invention, the specific KHP solution, based upon the weight combination of 50 kg feathers and 40 kg water, is named as KHP-1.
Generally, for soil infusion, the dilution ratios are between 50-1,000, with 50-100 being the preferred range. The notation of 50× or 100× indicates the dilution ratio is 50 times, or 100 times.
To confirm the effectiveness of applying the KHP solution as taught herein, the inventors set up four (4) groups of corn plants: Normal, Compare, KHP-1 50× and KHP-1 100×.
The 4 groups of corn plants are planted from seeds in fertile top soil about 2 cm deep in pots sized about 3.5 inches, and set a growth temperature of 23° C.-25° C.
Normal Group corn seedlings are given water in a normal growing pattern, no interruption of water supply. The other three (3) groups' corn seedlings are given drought treatment: 20 days without water. On the second day after the watering is resumed, each pots is given 50 ml of liquid, with the liquid being water only in the Compare group and the other two group given KHP-1 50× or KHP-1 100× solutions. Various measurements are then taken to assess the effectiveness of KHP solutions' ameliorating power, with 50× and 100× dilution ratios, to the drought-plagued groups.
For simplicity, the groupings are shown herein:
The ameliorating effect of the KHP-1 solutions is shown by measuring the roots' dry weights. As shown in
In terms of the growth heights, the KHP-1 50 group shows 4% increase over the Compare group that went through the same drought (20 days), as reflected in
To test the KHP-1 solution's ameliorating effect on corn plant's photosynthesis capacities, the inventors extract the 4th, 5th and 6th leaves from the corn plant on the second day after a 20-day drought, and use a SPAD 502 Plus to measure the chlorophyll counts. The results are tabulated in
As can be seen in
As has been proven by the tests and the scientific analysis/measurement taken by the inventors, the method of creating the KHP solution and the method of application to the corn seedling will help with the lessening of injuries suffered by corn in drought conditions and contribute to overall higher production yield of corns.
While the disclosure herein gave limited teachings and embodiment examples, it should be noted that the description and disclosure made herein illustrated the preferred embodiments of the invention and are not meant to limit the scope of the applicant's rights. Variations and alterations may be employed for yet additional embodiments without departing from the scope of the invention herein.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 112144619 | Nov 2023 | TW | national |
