IRANIAN JOURNAL OF MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS
Year:2021 | Volume:37 | Issue:2 (106)|Papers Count:12

To investigate the effects of different nutritional treatments on morphological characteristics, essential oil yield, and the amount of some elements in the soil and plant branches of Satureja khuzistanica Jamzad, an experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with three replications and 14 nutritional treatments during two growing seasons (2017-2018, 2018-2019). Treatments included 1-C (control), 2-NPK (Chemical fertilizer 50-25-25 kg. ha-1), 3-CM30, 4-CM60 (CM: Cattle manure 30 and 60 ton. ha-1), 5-CM30+NPK, 6-CM60+NPK, 7-V5 (Vermicompost 50 ton. ha-1), 8-V5+NPK, 9-GM (Glomus mosseae), 10-GI (Glomus intraradices), 11-S0+T, 12-S250+T, 13-S500+T (S: Sulfur 0, 250, and 500 kg. ha-1, T: Thiobacillus), and 14-V5+T. The analysis of variance showed the significant effect (P≤, 0. 01) of year×fertilizer treatments on the all morphological characteristics, percentage and essential oil yield, and the amount of potassium and sulfur of plant branches. The highest plant height in the first and second years was related to the CM30+NPK and CM60 treatments, respectively. The highest number of branches in the first and second years was observed in the CM30+NPK and GM treatments, respectively. The CM30+NPK treatment had the highest shade width in both years. Also, the highest amount of dry matter of flowering branches in the first and second years was related to the CM30+NPK and V5+T treatments, respectively. According to the results, the highest essential oil percentage in the first and second years was observed in the GM and S0+T treatments, respectively. The application of V5+NPK and V5+T treatments significantly increased the essential oil yield in the first and second years, respectively. The results also showed that the highest potassium content of branches in the first and second years was related to the GI and V5+NPK treatments, respectively. Also, the highest sulfur content of branches in the first and second years was obtained in the V5 and S500+T treatments, respectively. In general, the present study showed that the use of biofertilizers increases the efficiency of essential oil percentage and the amount of nutrients in this plant. Also, it could be recommended to use vermicompost along with the chemical and biological fertilizers to increase the essential oil yield of Satureja khuzistanica.

Water deficit is one of the most important challenges for the agriculture, especially in the arid and semi-arid regions of the world. Due to the high potential of some medicinal plants for cultivation under environmental stresses, cultivation of these plants in the low-yield fields can be considered. Therefore, to reduce the negative effects of water deficit on the growth of Hibiscus sabdariffa L., a factorial experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications in the research greenhouse of agriculture faculty, Birjand University in 2017. The experimental treatments included the amount of irrigation water at four levels (100, 80, 60, and 40% of the field capacity) and irrigation treatment with magnetic water at three levels (non-magnetic water (control), magnetized water with one, and two times passing through the magnetic field). The results showed that the effects of irrigation water amount treatments on the all measured traits and magnetic irrigation treatments on the all traits except leaf number were significant. Also, the interaction effects of irrigation water amount × magnetic irrigation treatments were significant on the plant height, number of bolls per plant, fresh and dry weight of aerial parts, dry weight of roots, and dry weight of sepals. Reducing the amount of irrigation water from 100 to 40% of field capacity caused a decrease in the spade number, stem diameter, number of leaves, and fresh root weight by 34. 7%, 23%, 40. 6%, and 27. 6%, respectively. The mean comparison of interaction effects of irrigation water amount × magnetic irrigation treatments showed that irrigation with double-magnetized water improved all the traits compared to the irrigation with non-magnetic water. Therefore, it seems that the application of magnetic irrigation can be considered as one of the strategies to reduce the negative effects of water deficit.

Teucrium polium L. belongs to the fam. Lamiaceae and grows mostly in the barren, rocky, and sandy areas of various parts of Europe, the Mediterranean, North Africa, and southwest Asia including Iran. It has various therapeutic properties such as analgesic, antipyretic, antioxidant, and antihypertensive. These healing properties are due to the presence of various chemical compounds in the essential oil. Plant harvest at the different phenological stages has a great impact on the amount of essential oil compounds of this species. This study was conducted to evaluate the quantitative and qualitative changes of T. polium essential oil (EO) during the growing season in Cheshmeh-e-Anjir rangelands of Fars province and at three phenological stages (vegetative peak, beginning of flowering, and flowering peak) in a completely randomized block design in 2017. The EOs were analyzed by GC and GC/MS. The results of this study showed that the main EO constituents were caryophyllene oxide (12. 1%), α,-pinene (11. 8%), germacrene D (9. 1%), myrcene (8. 5%), limonene (7. 2%), β,-pinene (6. 7%), bicyclogermacrene (6. 6%), E-caryophyllene (4. 6%), and α,-bisabolol oxide B (3. 4%) at the vegetative peak stage with the EO percentage of 0. 9%, germacrene A (26. 6%), bicyclogermacrene (18. 3%), (E)-β,-ocimene (8. 9%), myrcene (7. 8%), spathulenol (6. 0%), limonene (5. 3%), α,-pinene (3. 6%), and β,-pinene (2. 6%) at the begining of flowering with the EO percentage of 0. 3%, and α,-pinene (25. 8%), myrcene (12. 5%), germacrene D (11. 8%), β,-pinene (11. 7%), limonene (8. 5%), spathulenol (4. 6%), and bicyclogermacrene (7. 2%) at the flowering peak with the EO percentage of 0. 2%.

To investigate the effects of planting date (March 20 and April 21), full fertilizer (PLANTFEED) (zero and two per thousand), and harvest time (8 am, 12 noon, and 19 pm) on the quantitative and qualitative yield (leaves and stems dry weight, stems to leaves ratio, yield and percentage of essential oil, and carvacrol percentage) of Satureja rechingeri Jamzad, a factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with three replications in 2017. Based on the results, all the mentioned traits except the stems to leaves ratio were affected by planting date and full fertilizer treatment. The planting date of April 21 and the application of full fertilizer increased all the studied traits except the carvacrol percentage and the stems to leaves ratio. The morning harvest time treatment increased the percentage and essential oil yield. The highest percentage of carvacrol (93. 66%) was obtained in the triple interaction of planting date (March 20) × full fertilizer (two per thousand) × harvest time (evening) and the lowest one (82. 77%) was obtained in the triple interaction of planting date (March 20) × no fertilizer application × harvest time (morning). The results showed that in the planting date of April 21 treatment, the application of full fertilizer caused better results in most of the mentioned traits. Also, the morning and evening harvest treatments caused the highest percentage and essential oil yield and carvacrol percentage.

Medicinal plants are among the valuable natural resources of countries and can play a significant role in earning income and employment. To utilize the medicinal plants properly, the socio-economic factors affecting the monetization of these plants should be analyzed. Therefore, the present qualitative study was aimed at investigating the various factors affecting the ability to earn money from the medicinal plants of Lazur rangelands in Tehran province. The questionnaire and statistical communities of experts and utilizers were used to collect the required data. The responsive communities were selected based on the reputation analysis and purposeful sampling. This research was conducted in two parts. In the first part, the economic, social, natural, physical-infrastructural, human, and institutional policy factors were compared in pairs and ranked in terms of their contribution to the monetization of medicinal plants. To determine the most effective factor, the analytic hierarchy process (AHP) was used and the judgments were made about the acceptance or rejection of the given ranks using the inconsistency rate. In the second part, some items were considered for each factor and the items were ranked separately on the Likert scale in terms of their role in the monetization. To compare the item rankings, the Mann-Whitney non-parametric analysis was used for two data sets and the Friedman one for more than two data sets. The results showed that in terms of the responsive communities, the economic factor with the first rank and institutional policy factor with the third rank were the most important factors in the monetization of medicinal plants. The physical and natural factors ranked second in terms of the local communities and experts, respectively. The means comparison of the items in the social, physical-infrastructural, and human factors showed that the mean score of items of each factor in the monetization had a statistically significant difference (P-value<0. 05). In general, the results of present study showed that the provision of facilities, governmental support, processing facilities in the region, and coordination of activities of other institutions had the highest rank and therefore a greater role in the monetization of medicinal plants in the region.

Lallemantia Fisch. et Mey. is one of the most important medicinal plant genera in Iran, which is highly demanded by Iranian people due to its health benefits. This study was aimed at regenerating and domesticating some wild ecotypes of Lallemantia spp. species. The seeds of nine ecotypes from L. royleana (Benth. ) Benth., five ecotypes from L. iberica (M. Bieb. ) Fisch. & C. A. Mey., and five ecotypes from L. peltata (L. ) Fisch. & C. A. Mey. were prepared from the Natural Resources Gene Bank, Iran and planted in a randomized complete block design with three replications in the research farm of Qazvin Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Iran in 2018. The studied traits included total plant dry weight, seed yield, plant height, plant canopy diameter, and phenological traits including days to flowering and days to seed ripening. The ANOVA between the species was performed first, then the nested ANOVA between the ecotypes within each species. The means comparison of different traits among the ecotypes within each species was done using the Tukey method. In this study, the ecotypes were divided into three separate clusters based on the cluster analysis and biplot diagram. The cluster1 ecotypes belonging to L. iberica had higher seed yield than the other two ones. In L. iberica, the highest seed weight belonged to the ecotype ‘, Azadshahr’,(4. 5 g plant-1) with an estimated yield of 375 kg ha-1. Finally, the superior class a ecotypes were identified in terms of seed yield and put in the process of seed propagation and certification.

The production of secondary metabolites varies under the different environmental conditions. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of pH and temperature on the content of antioxidant compounds in a species of microscopic algae. First, the microalgal strain Monoraphidium sp. was cultured under the different temperature and pH treatments. The biochemical assays were then performed on the compounds such as photosynthetic pigments, phenolic compounds, and total flavonoids. The total antioxidant activity was evaluated by FRAP and DPPH methods. The results of this study showed that the microalgae Monoraphidium sp. had the maximum growth and high content of antioxidant compounds at the acidic pH and temperature 28°, C. The results indicated that the optimal conditions can be achieved for the high production of antioxidant compounds in microalgae by changing the environmental factors, which can be used in the pharmaceutical, medical, and production of nutritional supplements industries.

The lethal and physiological effects of plant secondary metabolites on a wide range of pest insects have been proved. These compounds, while having a direct effect on the target pest, are low risk to humans and the environment, and this has led to their advantage over chemicals. In this study, the lethal effect of Ferula assa-foetida L. and Aloysia citriodora Palau ethanolic extracts was determined on the third instar larvae of Ephestia kuehniella. The larval mortality was directly related to increasing the extracts concentration. The activity of some digestive enzymes in the gastrointestinal tract and the changes in hemocytes were also studied in the third instar larvae treated with the extracts. First, sublethal concentration of plant ethanolic extracts was calculated. The larvae then fed the diet contaminated by the lethal concentration of 25% (LC25) of the extracts (40 and 30 ppm for F. assa-foetida and A. citriodora, respectively). The control group consisted of larvae that fed the diet contaminated with diluted ethanol. The results indicated that both extracts significantly reduced the activity of trypsin and chymotrypsin enzymes. F. assa-foetida extract significantly reduced the activity of lipase and beta-glucosidase enzymes compared to the control, but the effect of A. citriodora extract on the activity of these two enzymes was in a statistical group with the control. The extracts had no significant effects on the alpha-glucosidase enzyme activity. The immune activity of larvae was also stimulated by changes in the number of blood cells affected by both extracts. The total number of cells and granulocytes of hemolymph showed a significant increase after 12 hours of feeding in the both extracts treatments, but gradually decreased until 24 hours that was still higher than the control group. The plasmatocytes showed a significant increase in the A. citriodora extract treatment after 12 hours, but in the F. assa-foetida extract treatment, this increase was significant after 24 hours. Understanding the intractions of plant extracts with the insect physiological characteristics such as the physiology of digestive and blood circulatory systems can lead to the possibility of appropriate use of these factors in the target pest control and be used in the pests management programs.

Datura stramonium L. is one of the important medicinal plants in the pharmaceutical industry due to its alkaloid compounds. To investigate the effects of urea fertilizer at three levels (60, 120, and 180 kg. ha-1) and planting density at three levels (6, 10, and 14 plants. m-2) on the yield and yield components of this plant species, a factorial experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design in the research farm of Isfahan Agricultural and Natural Resources Research and Education Center, Iran in 2018 and 2019 crop years. The main effects of density and urea on the traits including height, number of lateral branches, and 1000-seed weight and the interaction of different urea and density levels on the traits including seed yield, biological yield, number of capsules per plant, number of seeds per plant, and number of seeds per capsule were significant in both years. The highest seed yield (1282. 37 and 1212. 53 kg. ha-1, respectively in 2018 and 2019 years) was obtained in the urea fertilizer 180 kg. ha-1 and 6 plants. m-2 treatment. The causal analysis results showed that the highest direct positive effect at the different levels of density and urea was related to the number of capsules per plant. The results of this experiment showed that the application of 180 kg. ha-1 of urea and 6 plants. m-2 could play an important role in increasing the seed yield of medicinal plant D. stramonium.

To investigate the role of putrescine and 24-epibrassinolide on the morphophysiological changes of Ocimum basilicum L. in the water deficiency tolerance, an experiment was conducted as a factorial split plot in a randomized complete block design with three replications in the research farm of Agriculture Faculty, Ilam University during 2017-19 crop years. The experimental treatments included the drought stress at three levels (40, 80, and 120 mm evaporation from Class A evaporation pan) in the main plots and putrescine foliar application at three levels (Put0: 0, Put1: 0. 5, and Put2: 2 mM) and 24-epibrassinolide foliar application at three levels (Br0: 0, Br1: 0. 5, and Br2: 2 μ, M) factorially in the subplots. The results showed that the multiple interaction of year, drought stress, putrescine, and 24-epibrassinolide had a significant effect on the traits including chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b, and basil essential oil percentage, so that the foliar application of 2 mM putrescine and 2 μ, M 24-epibrassinolide at all levels of drought stress, especially 80 mm evaporation from the evaporation pan, caused a further increase in these traits in both years of the experiment, which was higher in the first year than the second one. The optimal irrigation treatment (40 mm evaporation from evaporation pan) with application of 2 mM putrescine and 0. 5 μ, M 24-epibrassinolide and drought stress treatments (80 and 120 mm evaporation from evaporation pan) with application of 2 mM putrescine and 2 μ, M 24-epibrassinolide had more leaves and secondary branches. The results of this study showed that the drought stress had an important role in reducing the basic factors in basil growth. In general, according to the results obtained, the foliar application of 2 mM putrescine with 2 μ, M 24-epibrassinolide to improve the physiological activities and increase the essential oil content, and 2 mM putrescine with 0. 5 μ, M 24-epibrassinolide to increase the seed yield could be recommended in basil under drought stress conditions.

Nowadays, considering the side effects of chemical preservatives and the attention of food manufacturers to the natural preservatives, it seems necessary to evaluate the antimicrobial effects of natural preservatives in the laboratory and food models. In this study, the stems and leaves essential oil of Anethum graveolens L. was extracted by Clevenger apparatus and its compounds were identified using GC-MS. The fresh celery juice was stored for 7 days at the room temperature until it was rotten, then the serial dilution was prepared and the bacterial culture was performed using pour plate method. The different bacterial isolates were purified and the antibacterial effect of different essential oil concentrations was investigated by disk diffusion method on the dominant bacteria. The sensitive bacteria to the dill essential oil were identified by the standard microbiological methods and 16S rRNA gene amplification method. Then the effective concentration was added to the celery juice and the effect of essential oil on the population of total and dominant bacteria was investigated. The sensory acceptance of different essential oil concentrations among the population groups was assessed by a five-point hedonic questionnaire. This research was conducted in a completely randomized design with three replications. Based on the GC-MS results, dillapiole (21. 2%), α,-phellandrene (37. 2%), and β,-phellandrene (9. 2%) were the most important constituents of dill essential oil. The results of sequence blasting showed that Bacillus cereus and Acetobacter fabarum were the most dominant putrefactive bacteria in the celery juice. Based on the results, there was a significant difference between the five concentration groups in terms of halo diameter in the bacteria. The highest halo diameter in both bacteria was obtained at the concentration of 1000. In general, the results of the present study showed that dill essential oil is a suitable additive for the celery juice based on the results of sensory evaluation and in terms of controlling the putrefactive bacteria.

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of salicylic acid (SA) and nanosilicon (n-Si) on some morphophysiological characteristics and essential oil of Lallemantia iberica under salinity stress and uncontrolled greenhouse conditions as a factorial experiment based on the randomized complete block design in 2018. The experimental factors included sodium chloride (0, 50, and 100 mM), SA (0, 1, and 2 mM), and n-Si (0, 0. 5, and 5 mM). The SA and n-Si treatments were applied at the four-leaf stage (once every seven days) and the salinity treatment was applied at the six-leaf stage of the plant (once every four days) until fully ripening seeds of the plant (yellowing 90% of the leaves and capsules). The results showed that under salinity stress, the plant traits including height, aerial parts dry weight, chlorophyll content, and seed yield decreased and proline and essential oil increased. The application of SA and n-Si improved these traits under salinity stress. The main constituents of L. iberica essential oil included linalool (25%), geraniol (16%), β,-cubebene (10. 6%), menthyl acetate (9. 8%), valencene (3. 5%), germacrene-D (2. 4%), β,-caryophyllene (2. 3%), and limonene (1. 3%), all of which increased in the salinity treatments compared to the control. The application of SA and n-Si under salinity stress conditions increased limonene, linalool, geraniol, β,-cubebene, β,-caryophyllene, and valencene and decreased menthyl acetate and germacrene D. In general, the results of this study showed that the application of SA and n-Si could increase the tolerance of L. iberica to salinity stress by creating the osmotic regulation, protecting the content of photosynthetic pigments, and reducing oxidant damage.