Plant Yield, Antioxidant Capacity and Essential Oil Quality of Satureja Mutica Supplied with Cattle Manure and Wheat Straw in Different Plant Densities

ABSTRACT

Satureja mutica is a medicinally important plant, which may be affected by organic fertilizers and cultivation methods. To investigate the effect of cattle manure (30 ton/ha) and wheat straw (10 ton/ha) as organic fertilizers and plant density (80000, 40000, and 26666 plan ha⁻¹), an experiment was carried out as split plot with three replications during 2017 and 2018 on plant yield, total phenol content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), essential oil (EO) yield and composition of S. mutica in the rainfed condition. The results showed that the highest fresh weight yield (FWY) and dry weight yield (DWY) were observed in high plant density in second year. TPC in interaction of second year and cattle manure was higher than others. The greatest TFC was observed in plants supplied with interaction of second year and wheat straw. EO content and yield in plants treated with the interaction of second year and high plant density were higher compared to those in other plants. The GC/MS analysis showed that the main EO components were thymol, carvacrol, γ-terpinene and p-Cymene, representing different concentrations by using the organic fertilizers and plant densities. In summary, the use of cattle manure and high plant densities can result in higher plant production.

KEYWORDS:

• Essential oil composition
• CARVACROL
• PLANT DENSITY
• TOTAL PHENOL CONTENT

Founding

The study was supported by RIFR of Iran.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the research institute of forests and ranglelands of Iran.