Extraction method development for phytohormones analysis in vermicompost.

Vermicompost (VC), an end product of earthworms’ feeding, plays various beneficial roles in agriculture as a bio-fertilizer. However, the chemical and biological properties of such bio-fertilizers are not yet fully characterized. The components in VC, which aid in agricultural plant development other than metal minerals, are speculated to be phytohormones. Therefore, the aim of the project is to optimize the extraction method which can be used to finally characterize the phytohormones in VC. The recovery of nine phytohormones, namely, trans-zeatin(Z), kinetin(K), indole-3-acetic acid(IAA), N6-(2-Isopentyl)adenine(iP), N6-benzyladenine(BA), N6-isopentenyladenosine(iPR), (+)-abscisic acid(ABA), 4-(3-indolyl)butyric acid(IBA) and 1-naphthaleneacetic acid(NAA) were investigated by two extraction methods, ultrasound-assisted extraction(UAE) and mix-stirring(MSt). The various extraction parameters were systematically optimized. The optimum conditions were as follows: using UAE in 32 ml solvent to 1 g sample ratio for 60 mins with 80:20:1 isopropyl alcohol (IPA)-water-acetic acid solution. The optimized method was used to extract from 500 g of VC and was studied by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis. Z, IAA, iP, BA, iPr, ABA, IBA and NAA were found in the real sample. Detection of the phytohormones in trace amount in VC might provide insight that VC is a good fertilizer.Bachelor of Science in Biological Science