Effects of organic and biological fertilizers on fruit yield and essential oil of sweet fennel (Foeniculum vulgare var. dulce)

Abstract

In order to evaluate the effects of different organic and biological fertilizers on quantity and quality of fennel essential oil, an experiment was conducted in a completely randomized block design with three replications. The experimental treatments included two organic (compost and vermicompost) and two biological (Pseudomonas putida and Azotobacter chroococcum) fertilizers, their all twin combinations (Ps. putida + A. chroococcum, Ps. putida + compost, Ps. putida + vermicompost, A. chroococcum + compost, A. chroococcum + vermicompost and compost + vermicompost) and control (non fertilized). There were significant differences between treatments in terms of seed essential oil percentage, essential oil yield; anethole, fenchone, limonene and estragole content in seed essential oil. Results showed that the highest and the lowest percentages of essential oil were obtained in control (2.9%) and A. chroococcum + vermicompost (2.2%) treatments, respectively. The highest essential oil yield (29.9 L ha -1 ) and anethole content of essential oil (69.7%) and the lowest contents of fenchone (6.14%), limonene (4.84%) and estragole (2.78%) in essential oil were obtained in compost + vermicompost treatment. It seems that compost + vermicompost treatment compared to other treatments supplied the highest equilibrium of nutrients and water in the root zone of sweet fennel which is led to increasing the anethole content, there upon, decreasing other compounds. Essential oil yield and percentage of anethole content in essential oil were significantly higher in all organic and biological treatments compared with control.Additional key words: anethole; Azotobacter chroococcum; compost; Pseudomonas putida; vermicompost. ResumenEfecto del abonado orgánico y biológico sobre el rendimiento de los frutos y los aceites esenciales del hinojo (Foeniculum vulgare var. dulce) Con el fin de evaluar los efectos de diferentes fertilizantes orgánicos y biológicos sobre la cantidad y calidad del aceite esencial de hinojo, se realizó un experimento en un diseño aleatorizado de bloques completos con tres repeticiones. Los tratamientos experimentales incluyeron todas las combinaciones dobles de dos fertilizantes orgánicos y dos biológicos (Pseudomonas putida + Azotobacter chroococcum, Ps. putida + compost, Ps. putida + humus de lombriz, A. chroococcum + compost, A. chroococcum + humus de lombriz, y compost + humus de lombriz) y un control (sin fertilizar). Hubo diferencias significativas entre tratamientos en términos de porcentaje del aceite esencial de las semillas, rendimiento de aceite esencial y contenido en anetol, fenchone, limoneno y estragol en el aceite esencial. Los resultados mostraron que el mayor y el menor porcentaje de aceites esenciales se obtuvieron en los tratamientos control (2,9%) y A. chroococcum + humus de lombriz (2,2%), respectivamente. En el tratamiento compost + humus de lombriz se obtuvo la mayor producción de aceite esencial (29,9 L ha -1 ) y contenido en anetol (69,7%), así como el menor contenido de fenchone...

Effect of Mineral NPK and Organic Fertilization on Growth, Yield, Essential Oil and Chemical Composition of Coriander Plants

“…Essential oil yield/fed was increased by 70.4 and 63.5 % in the first and second seasons due to the use of compost at 15 ton/fed in comparison with control plants. The promotive influence of organic fertilization was obtained on fennel (Badran et al, 2001;Safwat, 2004 andMoradi et al, 2011); cumin Badran, 2002 and; anise (Hemdan, 2008) and coriander (Abdalla, 2009).…”

“…In this regard, a good number of investigators pointed out the role of organic fertilizers in augmenting various aromatic seed plants. Examples are fennel (Badran et al, 2001;Fernandez et al, 2002;Badran and Safwat, 2004;Tanious, 2008 andMoradi et al, 2011); cumin Badran, 2002 and; Ammi visnaga (Younis et al, 2004 andKenawy, 2010); black cumin (Shoor et al, 2010 andGahory, 2012); anise (Hemdan, 2008) an coriander (Abdalla, 2009).…”

The effect of water stress, salicylic acid and biofertilizer on quality of leaf and seed essential oil, and oil components of coriander

“…Application of nitrogen fertilizer had a positive effect on essential oil components and increased (E)-2-decenal and decanal contents in leaves (Table 1), and linalool and -terpinene percentages in seeds ( Table 2). The improvement of quantity and quality of essential oil through application of nitrogen fixing bacteria has been also reported in other medicinal plants such as lemon balm (Harshavardhan et al, 2007), hyssop (Koocheki et al, 2009) fennel (Mahfouz and Sharaf Eldin, 2007;Azzaz et al, 2009;Moradi et al, 2011) anddill (Darzi et al, 2012). Leaves and seeds essential oils of plants treated with salicylic acid had higher quality compared with untreated plants.…”

Capsaicin Level and Anatomy Response of Curly Red Chili (Capsicum annuum L.) to Bio Fertilizer and Sludge Biogas Application

“…Bio-fertilizers are needed to prevent negative impacts from the use of chemical fertilizers. Bio fertilizer able to provide nutrients for plants and increase the level of sustainability of the agronomic system in the long run (Moradi et al, 2011). Bio fertilizer is an organic fertilizer that contains non symbiotic microorganisms that are able to fix N (nitrogen) and provide P (phosphorus) and function as decomposers so they can improve soil quality (Deshmukh et al, 2007), mobilize other main nutrients from unavailable form to a form that can be absorbed and improve the root system.…”