On the Probable Nature of Biological Activity of Humic Substances

Abstract

It is common knowledge that humic substances extracted from different sources are characterized by high biological activity (BA), though the nature of this phenomenon is not quite clear up to now. To expand our understanding of the BA of humic substances, we studied the effect of humates prepared from humic acids of different origin on the germination of seeds. The efficiencies of seed treatment by humate solutions obtained from preliminary purified humic acids extracted from peat, coal, and soil differed insignificantly. At the same time, the solutions of salts of humic substances obtained via alkaline extraction from peat without subsequent purification did not lead to statistically significant biological effects. The analysis of literature and our own data allowed us to conclude that the biological activity of humic acids could be related to their capacity to regulate the growth processes via binding growth inhibitors released into the solution upon seed swelling into the supramolecular complexes.