Work

Assessment of weak organic acid-based universal soil extractants for determining plant-available cations and phosphorus

Year: 2026

Type: article

Abstract: Rapid and accurate assessment of plant-available nutrients is essential for effective soil fertility management and can be facilitated by a universal extractant capable of simultaneously solubilizing multiple nutrients and enabling rapid chemical determination.Many conventional universal extractants, however, are constrained by the inclusion of nutrient ions or strong chelating agents that can interfere with subsequent measurements.In this study, we evaluated weak organic acids (0.01 M oxalic, citric, lactic, and acetic acids) as potential universal extractants for plantavailable cations and phosphate.None of the acids interfered with chemical determination, and ion concentrations in these extracts were substantially higher than in water (5-35 times higher on average) primarily due to the release of exchangeable cations and the dissolution of phosphate and divalent cation precipitates.Plant ion concentrations exhibited pronounced species-specific variability.In addition, broad correlations among multiple ions were observed in weak organic acid extracts (e.g., between orthophosphate and K + , Ca 2+ , and Mg 2+ ) but not in water extracts, indicating that these acids can function as effective universal extractants for rapid, precise, and onsite nutrient assessment.

Source: Journal of Applied Biological Chemistry

DOI: 10.3839/jabc.2026.004

Authors: Keongyeong Kim, Pros Khok, Yehun Lee, Shinhee Lee, Gwang Hyun Han

Institutions: Chungbuk National University, Rural Development Administration

Language: English

Topic: Plant Growth and Agriculture Techniques

Subfield: Soil Science

Field: Agricultural and Biological Sciences

Domain: Life Sciences

SDG: Zero hunger

Open Access status: diamond

Funders: Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, Korea Institute of Planning and Evaluation for Technology in Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries