Gerbera represents a valuable commodity in the global cut flower industry. However, commercial production is hampered by low propagation rates using conventional methods. Hence, the current contribution investigated the application of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs: Argovit™) in temporary immersion bioreactors to promote plant growth. The results showed that AgNPs at the tested concentrations displayed minimal promotive effects in terms of biomass accumulation (with the highest biomass recorded in control plants and those exposed to 25.0 mg L⁻¹ AgNP) and resulted in a reduction in the levels of iron and molybdenum in treated plants. Interesting results testing 50.0 mg L⁻¹ AgNPs yielded plants with elevated levels of chlorophylls a and b and total chlorophyll compared with control plants. This effect was similarly observed in the levels of free and cell wall bound phenolics which were present at more than a two-fold higher concentration in AgNP-treated plants (329.00 to 482.10 Trolox equivalents (TE) g⁻¹ DW) than in control plants (154.02 TE g⁻¹ DW). The trends observed indicated a hormetic response in terms of the biochemical indicators assessed where elicitation occurred between 50 and 75 mg L⁻¹ AgNP and inhibition at 100.0 mg L⁻¹. This hormetic effect of AgNPs was also observed in the antioxidant capacity of phenolics. It is proposed that the accumulation of the abovementioned biochemical compounds is indicative of a stress response elicited by the AgNPs that is mediated through the secondary metabolite biosynthetic pathway. It was further shown that this response displayed a classic hormetic effect. Future work will further investigate this interesting outcome which will be valuable in the context of biotic and abiotic stress research.

非洲菊是全球切花行业中的一种有价值的商品。然而，使用传统方法的低繁殖率阻碍了商业生产。因此，当前的贡献研究了银纳米颗粒（AgNP：Argovit™）在临时浸入式生物反应器中的应用，以促进植物生长。^{结果表明，测试浓度的 AgNP 对生物量积累的促进作用最小（对照植物和暴露于 25.0 mg L -1} AgNP的植物中记录的生物量最高），并导致处理植物中铁和钼水平的降低。测试 50.0 mg L ^{−1的有趣结果}与对照植物相比，AgNP 产生的植物叶绿素 a 和 b 以及总叶绿素水平升高。^{在游离酚和细胞壁结合酚的水平中也观察到这种效应，AgNP处理的植物中游离酚和细胞壁结合酚的浓度（329.00至482.10 Trolox当量（TE）g -1} DW）比对照植物（154.02 TE g ^-1 DW）高两倍多。观察到的趋势表明，在所评估的生化指标方面存在毒物兴奋反应，其中在 50 至 75 mg L ^-1 AgNP 之间发生激发，在 100.0 mg L ^{-1发​​生抑制}。AgNP 的这种毒物兴奋效应也在酚类的抗氧化能力中观察到。有人提出，上述生化化合物的积累表明AgNPs通过次级代谢物生物合成途径介导的应激反应。进一步表明，这种反应表现出经典的毒物兴奋效应。未来的工作将进一步研究这一有趣的结果，这在生物和非生物胁迫研究的背景下将很有价值。