# US 4,394,149 A · Plant nutriment compositions and method of their application

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- Number: US 4,394,149 A
- Document ID: US4394149A
- Status: Granted
- Kind: A
- Application number: 06/149,516
- Filed: 1980-05-13
- Granted: 1983-07-19
- Earliest claimed: 1978-02-24
- Inventors: Francis C. Szoka, Jr.; Demetrios P. Papahadjopoulos
- Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US4394149A

## CPC

- C05C 9/005: {Post-treatment}
- A61K 9/127: Synthetic bilayered vehicles, e.g. liposomes or liposomes with cholesterol as the only non-phosphatidyl surfactant
- C05G 5/27: Dispersions, e.g. suspensions or emulsions
- Y10S 71/02: Chelating agent
- C05C: NITROGENOUS FERTILISERS
- A61K: PREPARATIONS FOR MEDICAL, DENTAL OR TOILETRY PURPOSES (devices or methods specially adapted for bringing pharmaceutical products into particular physical or administering forms A61J3/00; chemical aspects of, or use of materials for deodorisation of air, for disinfection or sterilisation, or for bandages, dressings, absorbent pads or surgical articles A61L; soap compositions C11D)
- C05G: MIXTURES OF FERTILISERS COVERED INDIVIDUALLY BY DIFFERENT SUBCLASSES OF CLASS C05; MIXTURES OF ONE OR MORE FERTILISERS WITH MATERIALS NOT HAVING A SPECIFIC FERTILISING ACTIVITY, e.g. PESTICIDES, SOIL-CONDITIONERS, WETTING AGENTS (organic fertilisers containing added bacterial cultures, mycelia, or the like C05F11/08; organic fertilisers containing plant vitamins or hormones C05F11/10); FERTILISERS CHARACTERISED BY THEIR FORM
- Y10S: TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS

## Abstract

The disclosure is of the use of plant nutriments encapsulated in synthetic lipid vesicles to nourish plants. SP CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION This application is a Continuation-in-Part of our copending application Ser. No. 881,116 filed Feb. 24, 1978 and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,871.

## Claims

### Claim 1

A method of providing nutriments to agricultural plants possessing plant cells having cell walls and cell membranes, which comprises; applying to the plant a nutritional amount of a plant nutriment, encapsulated in a lipid vesicle, whereby the lipid vesicle encapsulating the plant nutriment is taken up by the plant and passes into the plant cell where the lipid vesicle is broken down and releases the encapsulated plant nutriment.

### Claim 2 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the lipid vesicles are in a dispersible form with a dispersible agriculturally acceptable carrier.

### Claim 3 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein said applying is by spray.

### Claim 4 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the nutriment is urea.

### Claim 5 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the nutriment comprises ferrous ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid complex and zinc ethylenediamine tetraacetic acid complex.

### Claim 6 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the nutriment is a fertilizer.

### Claim 7 (depends on 1)

The method of claim 1 wherein the lipid vesicles have an average diameter of from 2000 to 4000 angstroms.

### Claim 8 (depends on 7)

The method of claim 7 wherein the lipid vesicles are oligolamellar lipid vesicles.