Growth, volatile oil production and genetic study of some fennel cultivars under different compost levels in sandy soil

Abstract

Abstract:The present work was conducted during the two successive seasons of 2011/2012 and 2012/2013 at the experimental farm of ElQuassassin Hort. Res. Station, Ismailia Governorate, and Biotechnology Laboratory, Horticulture Research Institute, Agricultural Research Centre, Egypt. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of three compost fertilizer levels 4, 6 and 8 ton per Fadden using five cultivars of bitter fennel on growth, fruits yield and volatile oil production of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill). These cultivars were Netherland, Indian, Azoricum, German and Local fennel. Several trails were studied including growth and yield production, biochemical (the volatile oil) and molecular genetic (RAPD-and ISSR-PCR) characteristics under Egyptian sandy soil. The results showed that increasing compost level progressively (form 4 to 8 ton/ Fed) and significantly increased the values of such parameters. Azoricum cultivar was superior to other cultivars under study, as it showed the best growth in terms, fruits yield, fruit volatile oil (%) and volatile oil production per plant and Fadden. The main compounds in all fennel volatile oils were: Anethole, Estragole, Fenchone and Limonene. The highest percentage of Anethole found in German cultivar, while the lowest percentage found in Local cultivar, where the highest percentage of Estragole (= Methyl chavicol ) compound undesirable found in Local cultivar, while the lowest percentage found in Netherland and German cultivars. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and inter-simple sequence repeat (ISSR) molecular fingerprinting markers were employed as genetic markers for the assay of the genetic relationship of five fennel cultivars.In RAPD analysis, 10 selected primers displayed a total of 98 amplified fragments, in which 60 (61.22%) were polymorphic fragments. Thirty-one out of 98 RAPD-PCR fragments were found to be useful as cultivar-specific markers. The largest number of RAPD-PCR markers was scored for Indian variety (68 markers), while the lowest (49 markers) was scored for Netherland variety. In the meantime, the highest number of RAPD-PCR cultivar-specific markers was generated by primer OP-C04 (7 markers), while the lowest number of RAPD-PCR specific markers (1 markers) was generated by primers OP-A13 and OP-B04. In ISSR analysis, 4 of the tested ISSR primers generated variable banding patterns. A total of 26 out of 34 ISSR fragments were polymorphic. Eleven DNA amplified fragments were considered as cultivar-specific markers. The cultivars distribution on the consensus tree according to the banding patterns of RAPD differed from that based on ISSR. This may be due to the possibility that each technique of amplified different parts of the genome. Therefore, it would be useful to use a combination of the banding patterns of the two technique in order to use more segments sites of the genome that verify the validity of the consensus tree

Effect of Organic and Bio-Fertilization on Fruit Yield, Bioactive Constituents, and Estragole Content in Fennel Fruits

“…The unique odor of fennel fruit, leaf, and bulb is due to anethole, the most common constituent in fennel EO [1]. Moreover, the quality of the EO decreases as the estragole content increases, causing a decrease in Egyptian exports of fennel EO [8,17]. GC-MS analysis of fennel fruit EO identified 19 compounds, among which, trans-anethole represented the main component (Table 4).…”

“…Estragole may act as a genotoxic hepatocarcinogen in rodent livers by producing DNA adducts responsible for the genotoxicity of estragole [15,16]. Hence, the quality of the EO decreases as the proportion of estragole increases, causing a decrease in Egyptian exports of fennel oil [8,17]. Reducing the proportion of estragole in the EO is important as fennel cannot be free of it due to the biosynthetic association with anethole formation [6].…”