Patent Application
20250176560
Applicant hereby makes priority claim to a Taiwan application, number 112146911, having the Taiwan filing date of Dec. 1, 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 to promote the growth of corn plants under low light conditions.
The application of the KHP solution is by infusing the solution in the soil when corns are sown and until reaching the vegetative growth period; alternatively, by spraying the solution on the leaves of corns during the vegetative growth period.
Many factors will affect the growth and production of farming crops. The two dominant factors are insufficient light exposure and over-usage of nitrogen fertilizers.
Over-usage of nitrogen fertilizers similarly cause many plants to grow higher, though the internal metabolism of plants would become imbalanced, and will lead to weaker general health and lower ultimate production yield of farming crops.
When the light exposure is insufficient, the plants' photosynthesis activities are negatively affected, the internal hormones of plants would adjust and react to cause the plants to grow higher for better light exposure, this tends to generate slender stalk width. The insufficient light exposure problem also happens when plants are grown too densely together, resulting in reduced light exposure to leaves that are situated at lower height, and a Shade Avoidance Syndrome (SAS), that produced weaker stem/stalk and ultimately low production of farming crops.
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 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.
Among the embodiments disclosed and claimed in this application, one specific embodiment used feathers only, without water, to be treated with the high-temperature and high-pressure process as taught herein to produce a specific version of the KHP solution.
The inventors, using the KHP solutions made as disclosed herein, and applied to the corn plants, at the seeding stage and during the vegetative stage, and proved that the adverse impact of the low light exposure can be effective remedied as more detailed below.
As disclosed herein, the application of the KHP solutions can be done by infusing to the soil when the seeds are planted, or by spraying to the leaf surface during the vegetative period, which is the time between the growth of third leaf circle to the growth of the fourth leaf circle. Either method of application can boost the development of above-ground bio mass and the under-ground root system of the corn plants, despite the corn plants may suffer from degraded photosynthesis and metabolism activities due to low light exposure.
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 a-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 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.
A preferred dilution ratio is 50-500 times (noted as 50×-500×) of water by volume.
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:
A first embodiment of keratin hydrolysis peptide (KHP) solution, without water, can be made by 70 kg of feathers, with the feathers' water content being 46%, and then treated by the steps of:
The keratin hydrolysis peptide (KHP) solution of the first embodiment is further filtered and concentrated to 381,250 ppm concentration.
The hydrolysis process in the second embodiment takes the steps of:
The keratin hydrolysis peptide (KHP) solution of the second embodiment is further filtered and concentrated to 200,000 ppm concentration.
The confirmation of some of the 253 peptides is further done by referencing the BIOPEP-UWM database.
The KHP solution in the first embodiment will be denoted as KHP-1; the KHP solution in the second embodiment will be denoted as KHP-2. The solutions of both embodiments can be diluted with water at the ratio of between 50 times to 500 times, denoted as 50×-500×, before applied to the corn, either by infusing to the soil or by spraying to the leaf surface.
The method of applying the KHP solutions to corn plants, to remedy the adverse impact of low light exposure, depends on the timing of the application. Among the growth stages after germination of corn plants, the vegetative stage include VE (sheath leaf protruding from ground), V1 (first leaf circle visible), V2 (second leaf circle visible), V3 (third leaf circle visible), V4 (fourth leaf circle visible, stem top branching tissue underground), V5 (fifth leaf circle visible, stem top branching tissue above ground), etc.
The inventors tested the KHP solutions in two application methods to combat the adverse impact of low light exposure: soil infusion and leaf spray.
For the soil infusion, the KHP solutions were applied to the soil when corn seeds are planted into the soil. From seeding to the VE stage (about 6 days), using a shade to block out the light, creating the low light adverse condition.
The table below shows different groups of corn planting, up to the VE stage, and the growing conditions:
The Normal Light Group is given full light (noted as FL), having illumination of 27,000 lux. Two groups (1 and 2) are given reduced light exposure. In each of the 2 groups, A and B sub-groups received KHP solutions with 100× and 50× dilution ratios respective.
The two reduced light groups (1 and 2) have light illumination of 19,000 lux (Medium Light, denoted as ML) and 12,000 lux (Low Light, denoted as LL).
Based upon the group settings defined herein, the inventors took various measurements to determine the underground bio mass dry weights and the boost from the method of KHP application to the medium and low light corn groups.
As shown in
With infusion of the KHP solutions after seeding, it can be seen that, under the Medium Light condition (group 2), the Experiment 1B sub-group, with KHP-1 50× solution, has the biggest boost to the root development, up to 39% over that of the Check group 1. The Experiment 1A sub-group, with KHP-1100× solution, shows 16% increase. Notably, the 2 sub-groups in the Medium Light group show better root system development than that of the Normal Light group.
In the Low Light group (group 2), the KHP-1 50× and KHP-1 100× applications shows improved root system development better than the Check 2 group, though they did not exceed that of the natural Normal Light group.
The method of infusion of KHP-1 50× and KHP-1 100× at seeding stage also show improvement to the stalk height and width, as shown in
The remedial effect of the method of the KHP solutions to the leaf surface area, when infused to the soil containing the corn seeds, is shown in
When measuring the above-ground bio mass dry weights and fresh weights, the remedial effect of the method of KHP solution to overcome the negative impact of lower light exposure. As shown in
The inventors further tested the leaf spray application of the KHP-1 and KHP-2 solutions in a Group 3 setting as shown below. The Check 3 group is given water only whereas the Experiment 3A and Experiment 3B groups are given KHP-1 500× solution and KHP-2 500× solution respectively by leaf-spraying.
During the vegetative period of V3-V4, the light exposure is reduced to 14,000 lux, from the prior normal light illumination of 27,000 lux. The sub-groups of Experiment 3A and Experiment 3B are given leaf-spray of the KHP-1 and KHP-2 solutions, respectively, at the same 500× dilution ratio.
Based upon the tests and experiments done by the inventors, it is confirmed that application of the KHP solutions, at the dilution ratios and the growth stages as disclosed herein, worked to reduce the adverse impact of low light exposure to the corn's growth; in some instances, the corns aided by the KHP solutions perform better than the corn grown with normal light settings.
It can be seen that the method of applying KHP solutions as disclosed herein effectively remedied the injuries and stunted growth of corn under low light exposure, improved the capacities of metabolism and photosynthesis and, ultimately increased the production yield of corn.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 112146911 | Dec 2023 | TW | national |
