This experiment was conducted to examine the influence of drying methods on the essential oil of chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla L.) and its chemical composition. Chamomile flower heads were dried using five different methods: sunlight for 72 h; shade for 1 week; oven at 40 °C for 72 h; solar dryer for 72 h; and microwave for 5 min. Drying methods had slight and nonsignificant impacts on dry biomass of flower heads. The highest percentages of oil in flowers (0.35–0.50%) were observed after solar-drying methods, and the lowest percentage of oil was found after microwave drying (0.24–0.33%). Drying methods significantly influenced the number of identified compounds. The maximum was identified after solar drying (21 compounds), while the lowest was identified after microwave drying (13 compounds), which revealed the solar ability to preserve compounds in contrast to microwave, which crushed the compounds. Major compounds were α-bisabolol oxide A (33.0–50.5%), (Z)-tonghaosu (10.0–18.7%), α-bisabolol oxide B (8.2–15.4%), α-bisabolone oxide A (5.4–14.6%), and chamazulene (1.9–5.2%) of essential oil. Drying methods clearly affected major compounds’ content as the lowest α-bisabolol oxide A was after sun drying, and the lowest α-bisabolol oxide B was after solar drying. (Z)-tonghaosu increased during drying compared to fresh flowers. Solar drying maintained higher chamazulene content (3.0%) compared to other drying methods. The results of this study suggest that drying under the shady conditions preserved chemical composition of essential oil with higher α-bisabolol content compared to other drying methods.

to study the effect of three planting dates (November 1 st , November 15 th and December1 st) and three plant spacings (10, 15 and 20 cm) on growth, yield and chemical composition of quinoa plants to obtain the best agricultural transactions under the conditions of Central Egypt. The results showed significant effects of planting dates on all the studied traits, except for plant height, weight of 1000 seeds and protein% in both seasons, with the planting date of November 15 th being the best date. The effect of plant spacing was significant for all studied characters, except for weight of 1000 seeds and protein % in the first season. Planting quinoa seeds at 15 cm. was superior to the other spacings in most cases. The interaction between planting dates and plant spacing between plants was insignificant except for number of panicles/plant and yield of seeds/plant (g) in both seasons and the weight of 1000 seed (g) and seed yield/fed (ton) in the second season. Therefore, it is recommended to cultivate the quinoa on November 15 th at a distance of 15 cm apart under the conditions of Central Egypt because it gave the best values for economic characteristics.

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T WO pot experiments were conducted during the two consecutive growing seasons of 2020 and 2021 at Beni-Suef governorate, Egypt, to compare the influence of biochar treatments (50, 100 and 200 g/pot) combined with foliar application of chelated and nano iron (250 and 500 mg L -1 ) on growth productivity and chemical composition of tuberose plants. The best result for vegetative attributes (leaf number/ plant, leaf fresh and dry weights/ plant), flowering characteristics (flowering date, florets number/ plant, florets fresh weight/ plant, spike length and diameter in addition to fresh weight), vase life, bulbs productivity (number of new bulblets/ plant in addition to fresh and dry weights of the replacement clumps), oil %, photosynthetic pigments and total carbohydrates% in bulbs were obtained due to high level of biochar (200 g/ pot). Regarding iron fertilization treatments, all of the above mentioned qualitative and quantitative attributes of tuberose plants were considerably augmented due to Fe-chelated at 500 mg L -1 followed by 250 mg L -1 then nano-iron at 500 mg L -1 while nano-iron at 250 mg L -1 gave the least values. Spike diameter did not appear to be appreciably changed by any of the four iron fertilization treatments.In regard to the interaction between the two involved factors, the highest of the prementioned characteristics, as well as qualitative and quantitative characteristics values for the component of volatile oil, were obtained from fertilizing tuberose plants with the Fe-chelated at 500 mg L -1 in combination with biochar at 200 g/pot. Finally, adding biochar combined with chelated iron to tuberose plants obviously improved its qualitative and quantitative attributes.