H. Sartip; I. Khammari; M. Dahmarde
Abstract
Karela (Momordica charantia L.) is a plant with multiple medicinal properties, whose fruits are used to control diabetes. In order to study the effects of biological and chemical fertilizers on quantitative and qualitative properties and secondary metabolites of Karela, an experiment was conducted ...
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Karela (Momordica charantia L.) is a plant with multiple medicinal properties, whose fruits are used to control diabetes. In order to study the effects of biological and chemical fertilizers on quantitative and qualitative properties and secondary metabolites of Karela, an experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with three replications in the Research Field of Agricultural Research Institute of Zabol University. Experimental treatments included: control or 100 percent chemical fertilizer (F1), nitroxin + fertile phosphate 2 (F2), nitroxin + fertile phosphate 2 + 75 percent chemical fertilizer (F3), nitroxin + fertile phosphate 2 + 50 percent chemical fertilizer (F4), nitroxin + fertile phosphate 2 + 25 percent chemical fertilizer (F5), biological nano-fertilizer (F6), biological nano-fertilizer + 75 percent chemical fertilizer (F7), biological nano-fertilizer + 50 percent chemical fertilizer (F8) and biological nano-fertilizer + 25 percent chemical fertilizer (F9). The results of analysis of variance indicated that the effects of application of different chemical fertilizer levels along with biological fertilizers were significant on photosynthetic pigments and fruit performance per area. Comparison of means showed significant superiority of combination of biological and chemical fertilizers compared to separate application of these fertilizers. The highest concentration of chlorophyll a (30.66 mg/gr.fw) and leaf carotenoids (8.91 mg/gr.fw) were obtained in F3 and F4 treatments, respectively. The highest fruit yield was obtained in F4 treatment, showing an increase of 25.33 percent compared to control treatment. The effects of fertilizer treatments were highly significant on production of carnitine, so that the lowest and highest content were obtained in F3 treatment (0.93 mg/gr.dw) and F7 treatment (3.42 mg/gr.dw), respectively. Results of this research showed that application of biological fertilizers including nitroxin and fertile phosphate 2 in combination with 75 and 50 percent of chemical fertilizer had a positive effect on improvement of physiological traits and fruit performance of Karela. Therefore, instead of continuous use of fertilizers, steps could be taken towards sustainable agriculture by optimizing the use of biological inputs.
