Effects of Amino Acids on Morpho-physiological and Essential Oil Attributes of Satureja bachtiarica Bunge. under Water Deficit Conditions

Document Type : Research Article

Author

• M. Yadegari

Research Center of Nutrition and Organic Products (R.C.N.O.P), Shahrekord Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahrekord, Iran

https://doi.org/10.22067/jhs.2024.86940.1328

Abstract

Introduction
Satureja bachtiarica is one of the important endemic species and is used in medicinal and food industries. This plant is rich in essential oil, flavonoids, monoterpene glycosides and trypanocidal terpenoids. The main compounds of the essential oil from S.bachtiarica L. collected from natural habitats are alpha-pinene, p-cymene, carvacrol and gamma-terpinene. The environmental factors cause changes in the growth, quantity, and quality of active substances (such as alkaloids, glycosides, steroids and volatile oils) in medicinal and aromatic plants. Among environmental stresses, water deficit plays an important role in the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in medicinal and aromatic plants in arid and semi-arid regions like Iran. Drought stress has detrimental effects on growth and yield and can upset the balance between the antioxidant defense system and free radicals by stimulating a series of biochemical reactions, where free radicals cause cell damage. In sustainable production systems of medicinal and aromatic plants, stable quantitative and qualitative functions can be achieved under conditions of environmental stress and it is possible to improve the production of secondary metabolites in these plants under adverse environmental conditions. Therefore, this study was done to evaluate the amino acids on the physiological and phytochemical properties of S. bachtiarica to determine and introduce the best amino acids under water stress.
 
Materials and Methods
This investigation was done from spring (May) 2022 to fall (September) 2023 at the Research Farm of Islamic Azad University, Branch of Shahrekord (latitude. 32°20′ N, longitude. 50°51′ E, altitude. 2061 m). Based on the Köppen climate classification, the climate of the study area is classified as cold and semiarid. This study was conducted in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) as a split plot layout with three replications. Irrigation regimes (3-day, 6-day, and 9-day intervals) were assigned as the main plots, while the foliar application of amino acids (methionine, lysine, phenylalanine, and proline) was designated as the subplots. In each year, treatments were applied at 3 stages (3 months after sowing, end of vegetation, before flowering, beginning of flowering and early flowering) and harvesting was done in the complete flowering stage. Weed control was applied manually during the entire experiment. During the experiment, no fertilizer and no systemic pesticide and herbicide were used. The harvested shoots were transferred to the laboratory for extracting and analysis of the leaves and stems of treated plants. For assessment of the total chlorophyll content of S. bachtiarica, the leaves were extracted with 80% acetone. The absorbance of the extraction was read at 470, 648, and 664 nm, and the content of total chlorophyll was calculated as mg per g leaf dry weight. Total phenol content was measured by the Folin-Ciocalteu reagent as reported by Singleton and Rossi. The total phenol content was expressed as mg of gallic acid equivalent per g leaf dry weight according to standard curves of gallic acid. The essential oils were extracted by hydro-distillation and analyzed using GC/MS.
 
Results and Discussion
Applied amino acids significantly influenced the morpho-physiological and phytochemical characters of Satureja bachtiarica. In two years, the highest chlorophyll content (1.41-1.54 mg.g^-1 FW) and total phenol content (2.45-2.72 mg.g^-1 FW) were obtained in methionine (2.5 g.l^-1) and phenylalanine (100 µM) treatments by irrigation regimes 3-day interval. The highest essential oil contents (1.09-1.61 %) were obtained from the plants treated by methionine (2.5 g.l^-1) and phenylalanine (100 µM) treatments by irrigation regime 3 days interval. The main chemical compounds of essential oil were P-cymene (17.12-19.45 %), gamma-terpinene (18.14-16.87 %) and Carvacrol (45.12-51.24 %) belonging to cyclic monoterpenes. The treatments had significant effectiveness on cyclic monoterpens such as alpha-terpinene, gamma-terpinene, germacren-d, carvacrol, thymol and p-cymene. Increasing of essential oil content/composition by use of amino acids was seen. The main components of essential oil in plants treated by proline were lesser than other treated plants. In two years of this research amino acids of methionine and phenylalanine mad the most amounts of carvacrol and essential oil content. The monoterpene alcohols in volatile oils of the treated plants with amino acids elicitors considerably were higher than the sesquiterpenes. According to the ratio of monoterpenes alcohol to sesquiterpenes in volatile oils of the treated S. bachtiarica with different elicitors, the foliar application of amino acids can improve the odor quality of S. bachtiarica volatile oil.
 
Conclusions
Foliar application of methionine (2.5 g.l^-1) and phenylalanine (100 µM) treatments better than other treatments increased the morpho-physiological and essential oil attributes. Environmental conditions such as drought play a key role in plant growth and biosynthesis of different metabolic compounds. The observed variation in shoot yield and phytochemical content of S. bachtiarica during the studied years may related to differences in photoperiod, temperature, solar radiation, precipitation and occurrence of biotic and abiotic stresses at different growing seasons. Also amino acids had very important effectiveness on content/composition of essential oil of S. bachtiarica. Generally, treats of methionine and phenylalanine can be a good strategy to improve morpho-physiological characteristics and essential oil quantity and quality of S. bachtiarica in the same climate.

Keywords

• Carvacrol
• Medicinal plant
• Methionine
• P-cymene
• Phenylalanine

Main Subjects

• Medicinal Plants

©2024 The author(s). This is an open access article distributed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0).

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