Artemisia annua L. is an aromatic-antibacterial herb that destroys malarial parasites, lowers fevers and checks bleeding, and of which the secondary compound of interest is artemisinin. Enhanced production of the artemisinin content in the whole plant is highly desirable. Keeping in mind, the importance of this valuable antimalarial plant, field experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of triacontanol alone and in combination with gibberellic acid on growth attributes, photosynthesis, enzymatic activities, essential oil and artemisinin content and yield of Artemisia. The results indicate that combination of triacontanol and gibberellic acid (1.5 mg l(1 '75 mg l (1 ) significantly increased activities of nitrate reductase and carbonic anhydrase by 25.9% and 21.5%, and net photosynthetic rate, stomatal conductance and internal CO 2 by 25.4%, 14.1% and 15.4% higher, respectively, when compared to unsprayed plants. This combined treatment also significantly enhanced artemisinin content and yield (29% and 61% higher values).

Please cite this article as: Singh, M., Khan, M.M.A., Naeem, M., Effect of nitrogen on growth, nutrient assimilation, essential oil content, yield and quality attributes in Zingiber officinale Rosc, Journal of the Saudi Society of Agricultural Sciences (2014), doi: http://dx.Effect of nitrogen on growth, nutrient assimilation, essential oil content, yield and quality attributes in Zingiber officinale Rosc. AbstractA simple randomized pot experiment was conducted to determine the effect of different concentrations of nitrogen (N) on growth, biochemical, quality and yield attributes of Zingiber officinale Rosc. a medicinally important spice plant. Plants were supplied with five levels of basal nitrogen viz. 0 (Control), 40, 80, 120 and 160 Kg N per ha. The performance of the crop was adjudged in terms of various parameters viz. plant height, number of leaves, fresh and dry weights of shoot and rhizome, total chlorophyll content, leaf and rhizome NPK content, rhizome carbohydrate and protein content, analyzed at 120 and 180 days after planting (DAP). The data revealed that nitrogen application significantly stimulated most of the studied attributes. Of the five N concentrations, 120 kg N per ha soil proved optimum for most of the parameters studied as compared to the control at both crop stages.

Triacontanol (TRIA) is a saturated long-chain alcohol that is known to have a growth promoting activity in a number of plants when applied exogenously. However, the information is meagre and no work has been done so far regarding its effects on ginger (Zingiber officinale Rosc.), a medicinally important spice plant and one of the most heavily consumed dietary substance in the world. With this in view, a hypothesis was designed to address whether foliar application of TRIA could enhance the growth, productivity and quality attributes of ginger. The plants were sprayed with five concentrations of TRIA viz. 10 70 , 10 77 , 5 6 10 76 , 10 76 and 5 6 10 75 M at 25-day intervals. Among the applied treatments, foliar spray of TRIA at 10 76 M proved optimum and significantly enhanced plant height, leaf density, number of tillers per plant, fresh and dry weights of shoot and rhizome, total chlorophyll content, leaf and rhizome nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium concentrations as well as rhizome carbohydrate and protein contents at 120 and 180 days after planting (DAP). This treatment also produced positively significant effects on oleoresin and essential oil contents as well as on yield attributes. However, at the highest concentration applied (5 6 10 75 M TRIA), all the parameters were significantly inhibited. Thus, the use of foliar application of TRIA, especially at a concentration of 10 76 M might be considered suitable for promoting the production and quality of ginger crop.

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