Agriculture and horticulture
Fatemeh Borna; Mostafa Rahmati-Joneidabad; Sadegh Abdrahmani
Abstract
Background and objectives: The use of chemical fertilizers to produce high-yield crops in the shortest possible time has raised public concerns regarding food sustainability, safety, and security. Consequently, alternatives such as biofertilizers are necessary to ensure food safety and sustainability. ...
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Background and objectives: The use of chemical fertilizers to produce high-yield crops in the shortest possible time has raised public concerns regarding food sustainability, safety, and security. Consequently, alternatives such as biofertilizers are necessary to ensure food safety and sustainability. Biofertilizers are essential tools in sustainable agriculture and can enhance plant resilience to environmental stresses. Their application in the cultivation of medicinal plants, whose primary purpose is to promote public health, is steadily increasing. The medicinal plant Dracocephalum moldavica L., commonly known as dragonhead and a member of the mint family, contains essential oils throughout its tissues. In traditional medicine, it is used to treat mental fatigue, migraines, cardiovascular ailments, congestion, headaches, stomach pain, liver disorders, and as a sedative. This study aims to investigate the effects of biofertilizers on the growth and essential oil properties of dragonheads under the climatic conditions of Khuzestan.Methodology: The influence of biofertilizers on the growth, yield, and both the quantity and quality of essential oil in dragonhead was assessed using a randomized complete block design with seven treatments and three replications. The study was conducted at the Department of Horticultural Science, Khuzestan Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University, in 2022. Following soil analysis and land preparation, seedlings were transplanted to the main field in March. All agronomic practices, including irrigation and weed control, were uniformly applied across treatments. The treatments consisted of a control (no fertilizer - C), inoculation with bio-potassium (K), bio-nitrogen (N), bio-phosphate (P), a combination of bio-nitrogen and bio-phosphate (NP), bio-nitrogen and bio-potassium (NK), and a combination of all three (NPK). The aerial parts of the dragonhead were harvested at the flowering stage. Evaluated traits included plant height, number of inflorescences, length of the main inflorescence, fresh weight, dry weight, essential oil content, dry weight yield, and essential oil yield. Essential oils were extracted through water distillation using a Clevenger apparatus, and their components were identified via gas chromatography (GC) and gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). Data were analyzed using SAS statistical software (version 9.1), and means were compared using Duncan’s multiple range test at a 5% significance level. Charts were created using EXCEL software.Results: Analysis of variance indicated that biofertilizers significantly influenced all measured traits in dragonhead. Mean comparison results showed that the highest plant height (90.08 cm) was achieved with the P treatment. The NPK treatment produced the highest number of inflorescences (11.91), length of the main inflorescence (31.10 cm), fresh weight (50.31 g), dry weight (11.31 g), essential oil percentage (2%), dry weight yield (3393.5 kg/ha), and essential oil yield (69.19 kg/ha). The lowest values for plant height (71.50 cm), number of inflorescences (4.12), inflorescence length (17.75 cm), aerial fresh weight (15.68 g), dry weight (3.98 g), dry weight yield (1194.75 kg/ha), and essential oil yield (4.98 kg/ha) were observed in the K treatment, while the N treatment had the lowest essential oil percentage (0.44%). GC-MS analysis revealed that essential oil composition varied among treatments. The highest neral content (17.5%) was found in the P treatment; geraniol (7.9%) and neryl acetate (2.5%) were highest in the NPK treatment; geranial (32.1%) was most abundant in the K treatment; and geranyl acetate (73.2%) was highest in the NK treatment.Conclusion: The findings suggest that the combined application of biofertilizers, particularly the NPK combination, optimizes both yield and essential oil production in dragonhead under similar environmental conditions. It is anticipated that, under such conditions, and without reliance on chemical fertilizers, cultivating this medicinal plant within a sustainable agricultural framework can yield healthy, high-quality, and environmentally friendly essential oils.
Agriculture and horticulture
H. Shabkhiz; A. Javanmard; A. Ostadi; M.R. Morshedloo
Abstract
To determine the effects of Myco-Root biofertilizer and different irrigation levels on the content and essential oil compounds of thyme (Thymus daenensis Celak.), a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with eight treatments and three replications in the greenhouse of Plant ...
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To determine the effects of Myco-Root biofertilizer and different irrigation levels on the content and essential oil compounds of thyme (Thymus daenensis Celak.), a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with eight treatments and three replications in the greenhouse of Plant Production and Genetics department, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Maragheh, Iran, in 2020. The factors included drought stress at four levels of without stress (irrigation at field capacity (FC) as a control), mild (irrigation at 75% FC), moderate (irrigation at 55% FC), and severe (irrigation at 35% FC) stresses and biofertilizer at two levels of inoculation and non-inoculation with Myco-Root. The results demonstrated that the fresh and dry weight of leaves, stem dry weight, total dry weight, leaf relative water content, chlorophylls a and b and total chlorophyll content, and root colonization percentage decreased significantly with increasing the water deficit level. However, the carotenoid content and essential oil percentage showed an increasing trend with increasing drought stress. The highest carotenoid content and essential oil percentage was obtained by using Myco-Root under moderate drought stress. Thymol, carvacrol, p < /em>-cymene, 1,8-cineole, (E)-caryophyllene, borneol, γ-terpinene, and α-pinene were identified as the major constituents of essential oil in the all treatments. The highest content of thymol was obtained under mild drought stress with the Myco-Root application. Furthermore, the highest content of carvacrol was recorded under mild, moderate, and severe drought stresses, respectively with the Myco-Root application. On average, the application of Myco-Root biofertilizer increased the content of thymol, carvacrol, 1,8-cineole, E-caryophyllene, borneol, and α-pinene by 4.19, 48.28, 15.93, 16.33, 14.15, and 3.78%, respectively compared to not using this biofertilizer. Overall, the results showed that some morphological and physiological traits of thyme decreased significantly with increasing the water deficit levels, but the application of Myco-Root biofertilizer could amend drought stress and improve the growth, percentage and essential oil quality of the plant. Thus, the use of Myco-Root biofertilizer instead of chemical fertilizers could be recommended to achieve the sustainable agriculture in the thyme cultivation.
M. Abdollahi Noroozi; M.R. Moradi Telavat; S.A. Siadat; A. Khodaei Joghan
Abstract
In order to evaluate the effect of zeolite and vermicompost on Marigold (Calendulaofficinalis L.), a field experiment was conducted in 2017 in the research field of Ramin University, Khuzestan, in split plot as a randomized complete block design with three replications. Vermicompost (0, 3, 6, 9 t ha-1) ...
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In order to evaluate the effect of zeolite and vermicompost on Marigold (Calendulaofficinalis L.), a field experiment was conducted in 2017 in the research field of Ramin University, Khuzestan, in split plot as a randomized complete block design with three replications. Vermicompost (0, 3, 6, 9 t ha-1) and zeolite (0, 4, 8 and 12 t ha-1) were investigated as the main factor and sub plot, respectively. Results of variance analysis showed that vermicompost and zeolite had a significant effect on flower yield, biological yield, harvest Index, chlorophylls and carotenoids of leaves, petal carotenoids, nitrogen removal, phosphorus removal, and index of the intensity of the color of the petals. Also, interaction effects of vermicompost and zeolite was significant on all top-mentioned characteristics. The highest flower yield (69.53 g m-2) was obtained at 3 t vermicompost per ha and 12 t zeolite per ha. Maximum biological yield (474.84 g m-2) was achieved at 9 t vermicompost per ha. The highest leaf and petal carotenoids were recorded at 9 t vermicompost per ha and maximum chlorophyll a and b belonged to 9 t vermicompost per ha and 4 t zeolite per ha. The highest soil nitrogen harvest was obtained at 8 t zeolite per ha. Maximum soil phosphorus harvest belonged to 9 t vermicompost per ha and 12 t zeolite per ha. In total, knowing that zeolite is more cost-effective rather than vermicompost, increasing the amount of zeolite consumption can enhance flower yield. In the current research, the best flower performance could be obtained at an optimum amount of 3 t vermicmpost per ha and 12 t zeolite per ha.
A. Zand; H. Aroiee; M.R. Chaichi; S.H. Nemati
Abstract
Water scarcity adversely affects many physiological and metabolic processes of the plants. To study the effects of drought stress and fertilization on some physiological characteristics, essential oil percentage and yield of spearmint, a field experiment was conducted at the Research Farm of the College ...
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Water scarcity adversely affects many physiological and metabolic processes of the plants. To study the effects of drought stress and fertilization on some physiological characteristics, essential oil percentage and yield of spearmint, a field experiment was conducted at the Research Farm of the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, University of Tehran, Karaj, Iran. The experiment was conducted in a split plot arrangement based on a randomized complete block design with three replications. Treatments included three irrigation treatments (100%, 75% and 50% of plant water requirement) as the main plot and four fertilizer regimes including no fertilizer (control), chemical fertilizer (N+P), bio-fertilizer (rhizome inoculation with Azotobacter, Pseudomonas and mycorrhiza) and integration of biological fertilizer and 50% chemical fertilizer as the sub-plot. The results showed that all traits measured were significantly affected by the main and interaction effects of deficit irrigation and fertilizer. The content of chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, carotenoids, total chlorophyll, percentage and yield of essential oil and yield decreased with increasing water stress while the rate of carbohydrate and proline as well as the electrolyte leakage percentage increased. Furthermore, the results showed that under 100% and 75% irrigation systems, application of chemical and integrated fertilizers improved the physiological characteristics, yield and percentage and yield of essential oil. Under 50% irrigation regime, the best performance was related to bio fertilizer.
H. Abedini Aboksari; D. Hashemabadi; B. Kaviani
Abstract
To study the effect of organic compounds and bio-fertilizer on some attributes of ivy geranium (Pelarginum peltatum Soland.), an experiment was carried out based on R.C.B.D using two factors including phosphate bio-fertilizer (Barvar 2) and different substrates in 16 treatments, 4 replications, 64 experimental ...
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To study the effect of organic compounds and bio-fertilizer on some attributes of ivy geranium (Pelarginum peltatum Soland.), an experiment was carried out based on R.C.B.D using two factors including phosphate bio-fertilizer (Barvar 2) and different substrates in 16 treatments, 4 replications, 64 experimental plots and 256 plants. Barvar 2 at two levels (application and non-application) and different substrates including 8 treatments containing garden soil and sand along with different organic compounds (v/v) were applied. In this study, stem length, shoot number, root length, number of floret per inflorescence, fresh weight of aerial part, root and petals, protein content, chlorophyll content, leaf phosphorus and available phosphorus content in the substrates were evaluated after harvest of plant. Results showed that both main effects and interactions were significant on all traits. In addition, Barvar 2 along with the cultivation beds containing a variety of organic resources such as garden soil + sand + solid waste compost + water tank soil and sand + tea compost + cocopeat + water tank soil had a better function on these traits. The measured physical and chemical characteristics in the cultivation bed of sand + tea compost + cocopeat + water tank soil were more desirable as compared with other beds. The plants grown in this cultivation bed showed a higher performance in traits such as shoot number, number of floret per inflorescence, and chlorophyll content with an average of 5.90 and 6.42 floret per inflorescence, and 5.37 mg.g FW as compared with other treatments. Our results clearly showed that application of Barvar 2 along with this substrate could be recommended as a suitable supplement for the cultivation bed, providing a better growth of ivy geranium.
