Medicinal Plants
Mahdi moradi; Hossein Nastari Nasr-abadi; Mohammadnaser Modoodi; vahid shamsabadi
Abstract
Introduction
Moldavian balm (Dracocephalum moldavica L.) is an annual herbaceous plant that belongs to the Lamiaceae family. It is known for its production of essential oils and its medicinal-aromatic properties. Moldavian balm’s essential oil is used for food, cosmetics, flavorings, ...
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Introduction
Moldavian balm (Dracocephalum moldavica L.) is an annual herbaceous plant that belongs to the Lamiaceae family. It is known for its production of essential oils and its medicinal-aromatic properties. Moldavian balm’s essential oil is used for food, cosmetics, flavorings, and pharmaceutical purposes. Abiotic stresses include drought, soil salinity, flooding, extremes of temperature, and contamination with organic pollutants and heavy metals hamper plant growth and productivity. In recent decades, heavy metal (HM) pollution has spread across the natural and anthropic ecosystems posing inevitable, serious health risks. Soil microbiota plays an important role in the sustainable production of the different types of agrosystems. Mycorrhizae (a combination of mycelium of the fungus and the roots of the plant) form networks that capture water and nutrients from the soil, which facilitate the acquisition of the plant. Arbuscular Mycorrhizal (AM) fungi play a crucial role in mitigating the oxidative damage caused by heavy metal stress in different plant species. Thus, interaction between mycorrhizae, and plants can be an excellent strategy for sustainable agricultural production The aim of this study was to determine the effects of mycorrhizal arbuscular on improving heavy metal tolerance in moldavian balm, a medicinal and aromatic plant.
Materials and Methods
An experiment was conducted to study the effect of AM fungi on growth characteristics and quantitative and qualitative yield of Moldavian Balm, under heavy metals stress at Research Greenhouses of College of Agriculture, University of Torbat-e Jam. Treatments included mycorrhiza (inoculated and non-inoculated) and heavy metals including lead (0, 150 and 300 mg.kg-1) and cadmium (0, 40 and 80 mg.kg-1) which were arranged in factorial based on completely randomized design with 4 replication. Growth criteria, yield components, essential oil content and photosynthetic pigments were evaluated. In this study, different morphological traits (plant height, root length, root volume, stem diameter, leaf length, leaf width, leaf area, stem diameter, number of branches), vegetative parameters (fresh and dry weight biomass, root fresh and dry weight), photosynthetic pigment concentrations and essential oil content were measured. Data analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed using IBM SAS software (Version 9.1) and the differences between the means were assessed using Duncan’s multiple range tests at p≤ 0.05.
Results and Discussion
Results showed that with increasing the concentration of heavy metals in the soil especially Cd, most of the growth characteristics and yield components of the study plant were significantly reduced as compared to those of controls. Mycorrhizal inoculation improved these traits where plants were grown under heavy metals stress. The highest biomass fresh and dry weight was observed in mycorrhizal plants grown in non-contaminated medium, which was significantly higher than those of the other treatments. The highest biomass fresh weight was recorded in non-stressed mycorrhizal plants. Biomass of fresh weight in non-mycorrhizal plants of Pb150 did not differ significantly from that of mycorrhizal plants of Pb150. Fresh weight biomass in mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal plants stressed by Cd40 or Cd80 was lower compared to mycorrhizal and non-mycorrhizal plants grown in non-contaminated media or contaminated media with Pb150 or Pb300. Furthermore, the lowest Fresh weight biomass was observed in non-mycorrhizal plants stressed by Cd80. Root fresh and dry weight of mycorrhizal plants was significantly higher than that of non-mycorrhizal plants. With increasing Cd or Pb concentration in soil, root fresh and dry weight decreased as compared to that of the controls. Inoculation with mycorrhizal improved the photosynthetic pigment concentrations under heavy metals stress. The highest percentage of essential oil content (1.3% v/w) was observed in mycorrhizal plants stressed by Pb150, while the lowest percentage (0.53% v/w) was evident in non-mycorrhizal plants polluted with Cd80. With increasing concentration of the heavy metals, essential oil of moldavian balm was significantly decreased, but the essential oil content in mycorrhizal plants was significantly higher than that measured in non-mycorrhizals.
Conclusions
AM fungi are widely believed to support plant establishment in soils contaminated with heavy metals, because of their potential to strengthen defense system of the AM mediated plants to promote growth and development. Mycorrhizal inoculation of moldavian balm promoted plant growth and, in addition, mycorrhization enhanced yield as well as active substances in this plant grown in the heavy metals stress condition. However, these approaches show promise in mitigating the adverse effects of heavy metals stress and improve the overall health and productivity of plants. Based on the enhanced physiological and biochemical responses, as well as increased essential oil content, it is recommended to use arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi fertilization under heavy metals stress.
Medicinal Plants
M. Bagheri; M. H. Rasouli-Sadaghiani; E. Rezaei-Chiyaneh; M. Barin
Abstract
Introduction
The use of intercropping and the potential of microorganisms such as Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) is one of the important strategies in sustainable agriculture. Intercropping is multiple cropping systems, in which two or more crop ...
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Introduction
The use of intercropping and the potential of microorganisms such as Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) and Plant growth promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) is one of the important strategies in sustainable agriculture. Intercropping is multiple cropping systems, in which two or more crop species planted simultaneously in a field during a growing season. Of course, this does not mean that in the intercropping, plants can be planted at a time together, but is the purpose that two or more crops are together in one place, during their growing season or at least in a time frame. Therefore, it is possible that plants are different in terms of planting date, and a plant is planted after the other plant. Potential benefits of intercropping are such as high productivity and profitability, improvement of soil fertility, efficient use of resources, reduction in the damages caused by pests and weeds, better lodging resistance and yield stability. On the other hand, the use of AMF and PGPR as biofertilizers can play a role in improving plant nutrition, plant growth and product quality. The aim of this study was to study the effect of AMF and PGPR inoculation on plant growth indices in bean-Moldavian balm intercropping.
Materials and Methods
This experiment was conducted in the Agricultural Research Greenhouse of Urmia University, Located in 11 kilometers Sero road of the city of Urmia, Iran (latitude 36° 57′ N, longitude 45° 24′ E and 1321 m elevation) in 2017. The climate of the area is a Hot-summer Mediterranean climate bordering continental climate with cold winters, mild springs, hot dry summers, and warm autumns. This experiment was carried out in a factorial based on a randomized complete block design with three replications. The factors including microbial inoculation {(AMF, PGPR, AMF+PGPR and without microbial inoculation) and planting patterns (Sole cropping of Moldavian balms and bean, 1 row bean+ 1 row Moldavian balms (1:1), 2 rows bean+ 1 row Moldavian balms (2:1), 1 row bean+ 2 rows Moldavian balms (1:2) and 2 rows bean+ 2 row Moldavian balms (2:2)}. For this purpose, soil samples were prepared from Naqhadeh city in West Azerbaijan Province in Iran. In order to greenhouse tests, the soils added to the pots (in each pot containing 45 kg of soil). In treatments, soil used with microbial inoculation. Microbial strains were used for microbial inoculation including PGPR (P. aeruginosa, P.fluorescens and P. putida) and AMF (Funneliformis mosseae, Rhizophagus irregularis and Claroideoglomus etunicatum). For plant cultivation, been (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and moldavian balms (Dracocephalum moldavica) seeds cultivar were grown in pots. At the end of the growth period, the characteristics of the agronomic traits in the bean plant were including plant height, number of seeds per pod, 1000 seed weight, biomass yield and Seed yield, and in Moldavian Balm were including, plant height, biomass yield and essential oil percentage were determined. In addition, the land equivalent ratio (LER) was calculated to determine the advantages of intercropping. The analysis of variance for the obtained data was done by statistical analysis system (SAS 9.4) software. The mean comparison was done using the Duncan test at the 5% probability level.
Results and Discussion
The results showed that the different intercropping and microbial inoculation had a significant effect on all traits, in Moldavian balms and common beans. All the plant growth indices in common bean-Moldavian balm intercropping were the highest in the combined treatment of AMF +PGPR, compared to another treatment. The highest and the lowest seed and biomass yield of bean were achieved in sole cropping with 3.20 and 9.70 g and 1:1 with 1.57 and 4.41 g, respectively. The maximum biomass yield and other traits of Moldavian balm obtained under sole cropping, while essential oil percentage was higher in all intercropping patterns than in sole cropping patterns. The main constituents of Moldavian balms essential oil were Geranyl acetate, Geranial, Geraniol and Neral. The highest LER value (1.67) was obtained from 2:2 intercropping in PGPR inoculation.
Conclusion
In general, the results showed that all of the plant growth indices of Moldavian balms and bean in sole cropping were higher than other intercropping patterns; however higher LER was observed in intercropping with microbial inoculation. This shows more exploitation of unit area in intercropping. In addition, the greater amount of LER in replacement intercropping than additive intercropping highlights the necessity of appropriate density of plants per unit area in the intercropping. It can be concluded that application of intercropping with combined application of AMF and PGPR leads to improvement on yield and yield components of plant.
Ali Rezaei; Mohammadtaghi Ebadi; Hassan Pirani
Abstract
Introduction: Organic production is one of the important aspects in the medicinal plants industry and the use of organic fertilizers is very important in this topic. Seaweeds are important marine living resources with tremendous commercial applications and many commercial products from seaweed extract ...
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Introduction: Organic production is one of the important aspects in the medicinal plants industry and the use of organic fertilizers is very important in this topic. Seaweeds are important marine living resources with tremendous commercial applications and many commercial products from seaweed extract are used in agriculture and horticulture. Seaweed extracts can be used in liquid form as a foliar spray, soil drench or in powder and granular forms as soil conditioners and manure. Using seaweed extracts as fertilizers can improve plant productivity, because they contain growth-promoting hormones. Several studies have also shown that the seaweed extracts can suppress plant diseases and insect pests. Nowadays, seaweed extract is used as an organic fertilizer in order to increase the quantitative yield of medicinal plants and also resistance to environmental stresses. Summer savory is one of the medicinal and spice plants that has a high area under cultivation in our country for food and medicine. Various studies on its essential oil had been shown that it contains high amounts of phenolic compounds like Carvacrol, γ-Terpinene, Thymol, p-Cymene, β-Caryophyllene, Linalool, and other terpenoids.
Materials and Methods: In order to study the effect of different levels of seaweed fertilizer on the growth characteristics, plant material yield, essential oil percentage of summer savory, an experiment was conducted as a randomized complete block design with 3 replications at the Faculty of Agriculture, Tarbiat Modares University (TMU) during 2017. The treatments included: 0 (control), 2.5, 5 and 10 ml/liter seaweed fertilizer that they were used as a foliar application for three times in the growing season. According to the meteorological data, the area had an average rainfall of 246 mm and a semi-arid climate. In order to determine the physical and chemical properties of the soil, soil sampling and testing were done. To prepare the field, the soil tillage operation was carried out using a 40 cm depth plow. Then, plots with a 2 × 2 meters at a distance of half a meter from each other were prepared. The seeds used in this experiment were prepared from Varamin landrace, which is mainly cultivated by farmers in Tehran and Alborz provinces. Sowing operation was carried out manually. In each plot, 7 rows (30 cm spacing between rows) were cultivated and all of the plots were irrigated in the same conditions. The organic fertilizer (Bioalgax) used in this experiment was based on an extract of seaweed (Ascophyllum nodosum), which was obtained from the Kimitec company, Spain. This fertilizer is a natural source of phytohormones such as cytokinins, auxins, and gibberellins and also, it has some minerals. After reaching the height of 20 cm (eight weeks after planting), spraying of the fertilizer solutions was applied three times during the growing season at intervals of 10 days. The foliar application was carried out at sunset time by using a manual sprayer. The harvest was carried out at full flowering stage and 3 plants of each plot were harvested. The studied traits were: plant height, stem diameter, the number of branches, leaf length, and width, shoot fresh and dry weight, root fresh and dry weight, SPAD index, essential oil yield and content.
Results and Discussion: The results showed that different concentrations of seaweed fertilizer had a significant effect on the number of branches, shoot dry weight, root fresh and dry weight, leaf width and plant height at 1% probability level. They also had a significant effect on the shoot fresh weight, essential oil percentage, and yield at 5% probability level. On the basis of the results, the highest number of branches (35.44), leaf length and width (43.22 and 8.07 mm), stem diameter (5.00 mm), root fresh and dry weight (15.17 and 6.42 g), shoot fresh and dry weight (181.01 and 37.69 g) and SPAD index (48.13) were obtained from 10 ml/liter seaweed fertilizer and the lowest amounts were observed in control treatment. The maximum plant height (54.66 cm) and the highest percentages and the yield of essential oil (2.51% and 6.28 g/m2) were also obtained from 5 ml/liter seaweed fertilizer. According to the results, the response of summer savory to the use of seaweed fertilizer was positive and it could be placed in the fertilization program of farmers.
Mohammad Behzad Amiri; Parviz Rezvani Moghaddam; Mohsen Jahan
Abstract
Introduction: In recent years, the effect of exogenous organic amendments on soil properties and plant growth characteristics has received renewed attention. Although the utilization of mineral fertilizers could be viewed as the best solution in terms of plant productivity, this approach is often inefficient ...
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Introduction: In recent years, the effect of exogenous organic amendments on soil properties and plant growth characteristics has received renewed attention. Although the utilization of mineral fertilizers could be viewed as the best solution in terms of plant productivity, this approach is often inefficient in the long-term in tropical ecosystems due to the limited ability of low-activity clay soils to retain nutrients. Intensive use of agrochemicals in agricultural systems is also known to have irreversible effects on soil and water resources.
Compost is organic matter that has been decomposed and recycled as a fertilizer and soil amendment. Compost can greatly enhance the physical structure of soil. Decomposing organic amendments slowly release nutrients which may be taken up by plants and thus result in improved agroecosystem productivity.
Vermicompost is currently being promoted to improve soil quality, reduces water and fertilizer needs and therefore increases the sustainability of agricultural practices in tropical countries. Vermicomposting is a process which stabilizes organic matter under aerobic and mesophilic conditions through the joint action of earthworms and microorganisms. The products of vermicomposting have been successfully used to suppress plant pests and disease as well as increase crop productivity.
Cow manure is an excellent fertilizer containing nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and other nutrients. It also adds organic matter to the soil which may improve soil structure, aeration, soil moisture-holding capacity, and water infiltration.
Plant density is the number of individuals of a given plants that occurs within a given sample unit or study area. Planting density can impact the overall health of plants. Plantings that are too sparse (the density is too low) may be more susceptible to weeds, while planting that are too dense might force plants to compete over scarce nutrients and water and cause stunted growth .
Despite of many studies on the effect of organic fertilizers and plant density on different crops, information on the effects of these factors for many medicinal plants is scarce. Therefore, in this study the effect of organic fertilizers and plant density on morphological characteristics and yield of Echium amoenum was studied in a low input cropping system.
Materials and methods: In order to evaluate the plant density and comparison of organic and chemical fertilizers on Iranian Ox-Tongue (Echium amoenum), a split plots experiment in time based on RCBD design with three replications was conducted in 2011-2014 growing seasons, in Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran. The main plots included factorial combination of 3 plant densities (3, 5 and 10 plants per m2) and 4 different types of organic and chemical fertilizers (compost, vermicompost, cow manure, nitrogen chemical fertilizer and control) and the sub plots included agronomic years (2 and 3 agronomic years).
Results and discussion:The results showed that the effect of plant density on dry flower yield was significant, so that the highest dry flower yield (816 kg.ha-1) obtained for 5 plants per m2 and in this treatment dry flower yield was 23% and 15% more than 3 and 10 plants per m2 treatments, respectively. In both of agronomic years, effect of different organic and chemical fertilizers was intensified in 5 plants per m2, for example in second agronomic year, compost in 5 plants per m2 increased seed yield 30 and 25% compared to 3 and 10 plants per m2 densities, respectively. Although the use of chemical fertilizers to improve yield and yield components of Iranian Ox-Tongue was no ineffective, its impacts was much less than organic fertilizers. In general, the results of this research showed that the use of organic fertilizers in optimal plant densities can be reducing environmental risks of chemical fertilizers and develop sustainable agriculture and protect the health of the products.
Organic fertilizers are among the most significant resources for development of agricultural soil quality and increase in the yield of different medicinal plants. It has been reported that this ecological inputs provide favorable conditions for plant growth and development through improvement of physical, chemical and biological properties of the soil, therefore, it can be concluded that improvement of the most studied traits in the present study were due to use of organic fertilizers.
It seems that plants compete with each other over scarce nutrients and water in high plant density and cause stunted growth . Some other studies have reported that suitable plant density can increase the growth and yield of some medicinal plants such as coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) (Akhani), Ajwain (Carum copticum L.) , lemon balm (Melissa officinalis L.) and anise (Pimpinella anisum L.).
Conclusion: In general, the results of this research showed that the use of organic fertilizers in optimal plant densities can be reducing environmental risks of chemical fertilizers and develop sustainable agriculture and protect the health of the products.
