Effect of humic acid extracted from Thailand’s leonardite on rice growth

Humic acid have been successfully extracted from leonardite using base-acid treatment. Humic acid is an essential part of soil. This material, present in good soil, makes available of uptake to the plant and the soil nutrients for improving the physical structure of the soil. To extract humic and fulvic acid, the Leonardite is processed in a strongly basic aqueous solution. To precipitate the humic acid, the solution is adjusted to pH 1 with a mineral acid. Carbon, Oxygen, Nitrogen, Aluminium, Silicon and Potassium were extracted from humic acid in humate form (Humic acid reacted with KOH). Rice grower have expressed interest about using humate as a soil fertilizer. This research, humic acid was used to amend soils to increase organic matter and application on rice berry growth. In addition, humic acid and leonardite was beneficial to leaf and root growth of rice berry compared with the control.