Soil moisture stress induced changes in essential oil content and bioactive compounds in German chamomile (Chamomilla recutita L.)

ABSTRACT

 Plants produce variety of secondary metabolites in response to stress. The study aimed to evaluate the soil moisture stress on oil content & composition of German chamomile conducted in, 2020 and 2021 at CSIR-Central Institute of Medicinal and Aromatic Plant, Research Centre, Pantnagar, Uttarakhand, India. The treatments were T1 (just before irrigation), T2 (24 h after irrigation), T3 (72 h after irrigation), T4 (120 h after irrigation), and T5 (168 h after irrigation). Results showed that maximum oil content (0.26 & 0.57 ml/100g) was found in fresh and dry flowers, respectively of T2 & oil content decreased as the days to irrigation increased. GC results showed that the percentage of major compounds was lowest (74.02%) while maximum in acute drought conditions i.e. before irrigation (92.12%). Results suggest that soil moisture stress reduces the oil content however, the quality of oil is enhanced due to increased production of secondary metabolites.

KEYWORDS:

• Essential oil content
• German chamomile
• oil composition, secondary metabolites
• soil moisture stress

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), New Delhi, India for financial support (HCP0007), Director, CSIR-CIMAP for encouragement and the Facility for GC/MS analysis at CIMAP, Research Centre, Pantnagar.

Disclosure statement

The authors report there are no competing interests to declare.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research [HCP0007].