This article aims to study the influence of the culture of the Bacillus thuringiensis var. thuringiensis 888 on the quality of the vegetative mass of Origanum vulgare in terms of the number of antioxidants and flavonoids, yield and composition of the essential oil. The research material included a liquid spore culture of the B. thuringiensis 888 strain, samples of oregano: sample no. g-4, containing 52.0% carvacrol in essential oil; No. 2 containing 59.85% α-terpineol; No. 1 with a predominant content of germacrene D (21.5%) and β- caryophyllene (19.4%). Soluble carbohydrates in the plants were determined using M.S. Dubois’s method, flavonoids – spectrophotometrically at 420 nm following R.A. Bubenchikov’s method. The total content of antioxidants was determined using the reduction of iron(III) chloride to iron(II) chloride. The essential oil content of Origanum vulgare was determined by using hydrodistillation following A.S. Ginsberg. Gas chromatography was used to determine component composition of the essential oil. The results show that treating the O. vulgare samples with the spore culture of B. thuringiensis 888 strain culture does not significantly affect the accumulation of terpenoid quinones, tochromanols and water-soluble antioxidants in leaves. It has been shown that treating oregano with an ordinary liquid spore culture of the B. thuringiensis 888 strain promotes the formation of a persistent tendency towards the accumulation of reducing sugars in the vegetative mass of plants — up to 30.8% compared to the control. Treating plants with a culture of B. Thuringiensis 888 strain promoted an increase in the essential oil content in O. vulgare plants of the sample no. 1 by 2.4 times, as compared to the control and did not significantly affect the essential oil content of the samples no. 2 and no. g-4. The sample no. g-4 was the most resistant to treatment with entomopathogenic bacteria, and the content of linalool and caryophyllene oxide in essential oils decreased by 44.6 and 37.1%, respectively, and linalyl acetate by 4.3 times compared with the control, as well as the accumulation of α-terpineol by 86.1%.

Coriander is a valuable, highly profitable essential oil crop. Therefore, the development of new highly productive varieties is the main direction of breeding. The aim of the research was to study the collection of Coriandrum sativum L. (owner – Research Institute of Agriculture of Crimea) by a complex of valuable traits to identify promising samples for breeding purposes. In 2017–2019, under the conditions of the Crimean Foothills (village of Krymskaya Roza, Belogorsky district), we analyzed 164 samples from 30 regions of the world. The territory of the experimental plots belongs to the upper foothill, warm, insufficiently humid agro-climatic region. To compare the parameters, we included five coriander varieties in our study. They were created in the Research Institute of Agriculture of Crimea (‘Yantar’, ‘Ranniy’, ‘Nektar’, ‘Medun’ and ‘Silach’) and registered in the “State Register of Breeding Achievements Permitted for Use” of the Russian Federation. The work was guided by the methodological recommendations on essential oil crops breeding. Plot area – 0.6 m2, double replication. The analysis revealed high variability of the collection samples in terms of the main indicators of productivity: fruit yield (Cv = 37.2 %), content of essential oil (Cv = 51.3 %), yield of essential oil per unit area (Cv = 60.0 %). Optimal weather conditions for the accumulation of essential oil with a high content of linalool (the main component) are relatively low air humidity and increased temperature regime during flowering and fruit ripening. The following samples were identified as sources of valuable traits: vr. 341, vr. 757, vr. 756, vr. 387, VIR 415 with a mass fraction of essential oil in fruits at the level of 2.81–3.62 %; VIR 258, vr. 233, VIR 144, VIR 165, VIR 246, vr. 705 with a fruit yield that reached 52.0–73.9 g per plot. Five samples – VIR 348, VIR 421, VIR 180, VIR 431 and vr. 521 – provided a high amount of essential oil (0.90–1.23 g per plot) because of the combination of the increased yield and essential oil mass fraction.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the Foeniculum vulgare Mill. collection by the content and component composition of essential oil. The study was carried out in 2017-2019. The collection is located in the experimental site of the Research Institute of Agriculture of Crimea, located in the Crimea Foothill (Krymskaya Roza village) in accordance with the developed methods. The component composition of F. vulgare essential oil was determined by the method of gas chromatography on the “Crystal 5000.2”. It was found that the essential oil content in mature F. vulgare fruits amounted to the average of 5,88± 0.10%, which was higher than in the green plants’ material - 2,36± 0.06%. The main component of the essential oil is anethole. The anethole content in essential oil from fruits was higher than from the green plants’ material: 64.9-84.3% and 33.5-74.6%, respectively. 66.0% of the analyzed samples corresponded to ISO 17412:2007 requirements. Essential oil from the green plants’ material contained more α-phellandrene compared to essential oil from fruits: 1.5-19.9% and 0.1-0.4%, respectively. According to the research results, 9 promising samples with a high content of essential oil in fruits - from 6,52 ± 0.88 to 8,10± 0.91% were distinguished.

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