Unconventional and Sustainable Nanovectors for Phytohormone Delivery: Insights on Olea europaea

Nanoscience has allowed outstanding progress in many fields of research. Concerning the transport and delivery of active principles (drugs, contrast agents, sensitizers etc.), the improvements obtained by miniaturized carriers have recently been extended from medicine and pharmacy to agriculture. However, when coming to crop production, issues such as scalability, eco-compatibility, and sustainability represent a veritable challenge, so far only partially addressed. In this study, we propose lipid-based nanoformulations for the administration of root-promoting phytohormones to different cultivars of Olea europaea. In order to maximize the efficiency of these novel carriers, we devised nanovectors made by lipids extracted from olive pomace, a material derived from the plant itself and representing a waste in oil processing. This allowed combining cost-effectiveness and environmentally friendly procedures. The implementation obtained using adjuvants, such as purified natural lipids forming stable and well-defined nano-objects, was also investigated. Controlled and reproducible formulations were achieved after extensive study of the obtained systems, in particular by physicochemical characterization through advanced methods. Trials in vivo and in vitro showed that rooting was enhanced with respect to conventional treatments, thus indicating that the innovative formulations here fabricated have significant potentiality for the large-scale administration of agrochemicals in the context of sustainable economy.