Growth characters and chemical constituents of Dracocephalum moldavica L. plants in relation to compost fertilizer and planting distance

Scientia Horticulturae 108 (2006) 322–331 www.elsevier.com/locate/scihorti

Growth characters and chemical constituents of Dracocephalum moldavica L. plants in relation to compost fertilizer and planting distance M.S. Hussein, S.E. El-Sherbeny, M.Y. Khalil *, N.Y. Naguib, S.M. Aly Cultivation and Production of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, NRC, Cairo, Egypt Received 21 March 2005; received in revised form 6 January 2006; accepted 31 January 2006

Abstract Two experiments were carried out during two successive seasons to investigate the response of Dracocephalum moldavica L. (dragonhead) to various plant densities and compost applications. Compost levels had a promoting influence on most of vegetative growth parameters and accelerated essential oil accumulation and chemical constituents including total carbohydrate and photosynthetic pigments content. Similarly, wider plant spacing showed the greatest effect on growth components and chemical constituents. Generally, the maximum rate of compost (39.6 t/ ha) combined with wider distance between plants (40 cm) had a favorable effect on most of growth characters. The same treatment gave the highest mean value for essential oil yield during the first season while the same compost rate combined with the medium distance (30 cm) gave the highest value during the second season. The main constituent of the essential oil was linalool followed by geranial. On the other hand, compost levels combined with different distances had a pronounced effect on the various essential oil constituents. It can be decisived that there is no significant difference between wider distance (40 cm) and medium one (30 cm); so, it can be recommended to apply the maximum level of compost (39.6 t/ha) combined with medium distance. # 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. Keywords: Dragonhead; Essential oil; Pigments; Compost fertilizer; Planting distances

1. Introduction Dragonhead (Dracocephalum moldavica L.) is a hardy annual plant (2 ft) with aromatic, balm-scented, green foliage, and belongs to family Lamiaceae. The volatile oil content and its composition showed great variation due to plant origin. In Rumania, the percentage of essential oil ranged from 0.2 to 0.62 (Racz et al., 1978). However, in Hungary, Halasz-Zelnik et al. (1988) and Hornok et al. (1990) reported that the essential oil at flowering stage reached 0.741 and citral was the major component of the oil (30–45%). In Finland, Holm et al. (1988) stated that the maximum percentage of oil was 0.62% during the flowering stage and the oil contained 90% of oxygenated acyclic monoterpenes, i.e. geraniol, geranial, neral, nerol and geranyl acetate. In Egypt, El-Gengaihi et al. (1995) found that the volatile oil was composed of acyclic oxygenated monoterpenes which reached to 93% of the oil. Moreover, Aziz and ElSherbeny (2003) stated that the essential oil of dragonhead

* Corresponding author. E-mail address: [email protected] (M.S. Hussein). 0304-4238/$ – see front matter # 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.scienta.2006.01.035

plants was characterized by a high percentage of oxygenated monoterpenes (81.4–96.05%) and the major components were geranial (22.82–55.8%), geranyl acetate (9.75–31.48%), neral (16.08–22.02%) and geraniol (0.42–16.59%). D. moldavica L. is widely used in folk medicine as a painkiller and for the treatment of kidney complaints. Extracts of the plant are used against toothache and colds as a poultice against rheumatism (Racz et al., 1978); also, this extract acts as stimulated evolution in female rats and rabbits (Boikova and Akulova, 1995) as it is used as antitumor (Chachoyan and Oganesyan, 1996). The compost must be added to conventional NPK fertilizer to improve soil structure, making the soil easier to cultivate, encouraging root development, providing plant nutrients and enabling their increased uptake by plants. Moreover, compost aids water absorption and retention by the soil, reducing erosion and run-off and thereby protecting surface waters from sedimentation, help binding agricultural chemicals, keeping them out of water ways and protecting ground water from contamination (leaMaster et al., 1998). Compost has already been established as a recommended fertilizer for improving the productivity of several medicinal and aromatic plants, as amaryllis (El-Ashry et al., 1995),

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D. moldavica seeds were obtained from conservator ElJerdins Botanious D-Nancy in France. The experimental design was split-plot with three replicates where the plot size is 6 m2. Four levels of compost (0, 13.20, 26.40 and 39.6 t/ha) were arranged in the main plots where plant spacing (20, 30 and 40 cm) was arranged in sub-plots. Compost levels were added 15 days before sowing (which were obtained from Green Valley for Organic Products Company, S.A.E., Egypt). Physico-chemical properties of the organic compost are shown in Table 1. The seeds of dragonhead were sown directly in field on 15 October for both seasons. The physical and chemical properties of experimental soil were determined using the methods of Chapman and Pratt (1978) and the data are shown in Table 2. After two weeks from sowing, the plants were thinned twice, leaving one plant in hills with 20, 30 or 40 cm in between and 60 cm between rows. The plants were collected at full flowering stage in May during the two successive seasons, and the following data were recorded.

peppermint (O’Brien and Barker, 1996) and Tagetes erecta (Khalil et al., 2002). In this respect Khalil and El-Sherbeny (2003) indicated that compost additions markedly improved the productivity of the three mint species, where the increasing compost levels from 3.5 to 7.5 t/feddan caused gradual and significant increases of all growth and chemical constituents. Naguib (2003) concluded that in order to obtain the best yield of good quality chamomile oil, the plants would be fertilized with 80 kg N/fed. from both mineral nitrogen source and organic compost. The effect of plant density on the growth, yield and active ingredients of medicinal and aromatic plants was studied by many investigators: Yang et al. (1989) on Chrysanthemum coronarium L., and Balyan and Sobti (1990) on Ocimum gratissimum L. Meanwhile, Shalaby et al. (1997) reported that Echinacea purpurea L. plants, cultivated with 20, 40 or 60 cm spacing between plants, had increased height, vegetative dry weight, roots and flowering heads at 60 cm spacing. Wahba and Ezz El-Din (2002) mentioned that dense planting (25 cm between hills) produced the tallest plants and the highest yield of seeds and volatile oil of C. coronarium L. compared with the wider planting distance (e.g. 50 or 75 cm between hills). On the other hand, the wider spacing (75 cm between hills) produced the highest values of hill circumference, weight of whole plant and dry weight of flower heads (g/plant). Recently, dragonhead plants were introduced in Egypt, so this study was conducted to enhance the productivity of this plant which depends on various agricultural practices. The main object of this work was to record the optimum compost level and suitable distance between plants to obtain highest growth yield and essential oil content of dragonhead plant under the Egyptian environmental condition.

2.1. Plant growth characters Data of growth were measured as plant height (cm), number of branches/plant and fresh and dry weights of herbage (g/ plant). 2.2. Chemical constituents Total carbohydrate percentage of herb was determined according to Dubois et al. (1956). Photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a and b and total carotenoids mg/g) of the leaves were determined by A.O.A.C. (1990). Samples from the fresh herbage of each treatment were separately subjected to water distillation for 3 h according to Guenther (1961). The samples were subjected to three replications giving an average content (ml of oil per 100 g of herb). The resulted essential oil from each treatment was dehydrated over anhydrous sodium sulfate and then subjected to GLC analysis with Varian VISTA 6000 FID model. The separation was carried out with z-mx 1/8 stainless steel 3%

2. Materials and methods Two experiments were carried out during two successive seasons of 2001/2002 and 2002/2003 in the Experimental Farm of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Department, National Research Centre, Giza, to investigate the response of D. moldavica to various plant densities and compost applications.

Table 1 Physical–chemical properties of the organic compost Moisture (%) pH 25–50

EC

Total (N%) Organic matter (%) Ash (%) C/N ratio P (%)

7.0–7.5 3–4 1.5–1.8

45.55

45.55

14.2:1

K (%)

Fe (ppm)

Mn (ppm) Cu (ppm) Zn (ppm)

0.5–0.75 1.25–1.75 1500–1800 25–50

75–90

150–225

Table 2 Physical and chemical properties of experimental soil Texture

Coarse sand (%)

Fine sand (%)

Silt (%)

Clay (%)

pH (%)

Loamy

5.4

33.2

28.0

31.1

8.3

EC (mmhos/cm) 6.9

N (ppm) 12.2

P (ppm) 0.466

K (ppm) 3.2

S (ppm) 4.4

Na (ppm) 8.0

Ca (ppm) 9.2

Mg (ppm) 12.0

Fe (ppm) 2.5

Zn (ppm) 4.2

Mn (ppm) 1.8

Cu (ppm) 0.81

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Table 3 Analysis of variance in the means of six characters for Dracocephalum moldavica L. as influenced by various compost levels, plant distances and their interaction Source of variation

d.f.

Plant height (cm)

No. of branches/plant

Fresh weight (g/plant)

Dry weight (g/plant)

Oil (%)

Oil yield

First season (2001–2002) Replicates 2 C 3 D 2 CD 6 Error 22

20.20 241.49** 156.34* 30.54 38.51

5.82 37.44** 7.17 12.57 3.16

48.38 31057.72** 58784.17** 374.58* 122.55

0.89 2200.87** 4114.35** 388.05** 12.12

2.69E 06 0.0004** 3.47E 05 5.47E 06 2.06E 05

6.36E 05 0.019** 0.006** 0.0002** 2.68E 05

Second season (2002–2003) Rep. 2 C 3 D 2 CD 6 Error 22

3.01 1437.45** 59.81 17.65 20.79

1.59 111.32** 45.39** 37.22** 0.42

51.82 911618.7** 97623.78** 76777.25** 572.8713

0.13 29603.67** 2688.03** 2240.99** 5.83

3E 06 0.0003** 0.0004** 0.0014** 1.26E 05

3.41E 05 0.31** 0.15** 0.06** 0.0002

C, compost; D, distance; C  D, compost  distance. * Significant at 5%. ** Significant at 1%.

OV-101 column. The flow rate of the carrier gas (nitrogen) was maintained at 50 ml/min. The column temperature was programmed from 50 to 200 8C at the rate of 2.5 8C/min. The injection port temperature was maintained at 180 8C and detector at 240 8C. The relative percentage of the different compounds was determined by Version 4270 integrator. The identification of these compounds was achieved by matching their retention times with those of authentic samples injected with the same conditions. 2.3. Statistical analysis The obtained data were subjected to statistical analysis according to Snedecor and Cochran (1990), using L.S.D. at level of 5%. 3. Results 3.1. Analysis of variance Analysis of variance for six quantitative characters related to growth parameters, essential oil content and yield are shown in Table 3. In both seasons differences between treatments were significant and highly significant with some exceptions. 3.2. Growth characters 3.2.1. Effect of compost Tables 4 and 5 clearly show that compost treatments significantly increased all growth characters of dragonhead. The addition of 39.6 t/ha gave the highest value of plant height (66.23 and 77.22 cm) during first and second seasons, respectively. Meanwhile, there are no significant differences between these values and other values obtained as a result of first and second compost levels. For other growth characters, the maximum values of number of branches (11.67 and 28.53), herb fresh weight (376.70 and 843.9 g/plant) and herb dry weight (79.01 and 118.94 g/plant) were obtained as a result of

the highest compost level (39.6 t/ha) during first and second seasons, respectively. 3.2.2. Plant spacing Data reported in Tables 4 and 5 indicate that the distance between hills had statistical significant effect on most of growth characters. Wide distance (40 cm) between hills had a remarkable depression on plant height. This trend was observed in both seasons. Concerning the effect of plant distance on number of branches/plant it was obvious that the widest distance between hills (40 cm) had the maximum mean values during the first season while 30 cm gave the maximum one during the second season. Also it can be noticed that there was no significant difference between 30 and 40 cm during both seasons. The fresh and dry weights (g/plant) presented in Tables 3 and 4 showed that the widest distance (40 cm) resulted in highest fresh and dry weights of herb (g/plant) as compared to 20 and 30 cm. Generally, it is noticed that there was a gradual increase in the fresh and dry weights (g/plant) by increasing the distance between plants. 3.2.3. Interaction treatments Data in Tables 4 and 5 show that the most favorable interaction treatment for plant height was the narrow distance (20 cm) combined with the highest level of compost (39.6 t/ ha) during the first season while the maximum value of this character was obtained as a result of the interaction between the medium distance (30 cm) and the highest level of compost in the second season. However, the other vegetative characters (number of branches, fresh and dry weights) during the first season, data in Table 4, show that the highest mean values for these characters were obtained as a result of the maximum rate of compost combined with wide distance between hills except number of branches which recorded highest significant increment as a result of wide distance without adding compost.

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Table 4 Vegetative growth and essential oil content of Dracocephalum moldovica L. as influenced by various compost levels, plant distances and their interaction (first season 2001–2002) Characters

Plant height (cm)

No. of branches/plant

Fresh weight (g/plant)

(a) Compost levels Control Compost 1 Compost 2 Compost 3

54.67 57.00 61.67 66.23

11.67 10.11 10.89 11.67

238.28 317.62 341.36 376.70

6.05 8.25

1.73 2.36

L.S.D. at 5% 1%

(b) Different distances (cm) 20 64.00 30 59.67 40 57.67 L.S.D. at 5% 1%

5.24 7.14

Oil (%)

Oil yield (ml/plant)

49.48 61.60 76.08 79.01

0.037 0.043 0.046 0.051

0.088 0.133 0.166 0.189

10.80 14.72

3.39 4.63

0.004 0.006

0.005 0.007

9.56 11.08 12.17

249.55 331.00 389.44

51.51 70.37 88.55

0.047 0.045 0.043

0.120 0.144 0.168

N.S. N.S.

9.36 12.74

2.94 4.01

N.S. N.S.

0.004 0.006

167.90 238.43 308.50

46.27 48.29 53.86

0.039 0.037 0.036

0.065 0.088 0.111

(c) Interaction between compost levels and different distances Control (cm) 20 56.00 19.00 30 54.67 12.00 40 53.33 13.67

Dry weight (g/plant)

Compost 1 (cm) 20 59.33 30 57.33 40 54.33

9.67 10.00 10.67

264.37 300.70 381.87

52.80 63.18 88.90

0.044 0.042 0.042

0.117 0.128 0.153

Compost 2 (cm) 20 68.00 30 60.00 40 57.00

10.00 11.00 11.67

265.30 347.60 411.17

48.57 82.30 97.37

0.051 0.049 0.047

0.135 0.170 0.193

Compost 3 (cm) 20 73.00 30 60.68 40 66.02

11.0 11.33 12.67

300.63 373.27 456.20

58.40 87.07 114.05

0.054 0.051 0.047

0.162 0.190 0.214

L.S.D. at 5% 1%

3.01 4.09

18.71 25.48

5.88 8.02

N.S. N.S.

0.008 0.012

N.S. N.S

Compost 1: 13.2 t/ha; Compost 2: 26.4 t/ha; Compost 3: 39.6 t/ha; hectare = 2.381 fed.

On the other hand, during the second season (Table 5), it could be shown that maximum mean values of number of branches, fresh and dry weight/plant were obtained as a result of the combined effect between compost at 39.6 t/ha and the medium distance. 3.3. Essential oil percentage and yield 3.3.1. Effect of compost Data in Tables 4 and 5 illustrate the effect of applying different levels of compost. The oil contents (%) for control plant were 0.037 and 0.044% during the first and second seasons, respectively. Generally, the compost treatments produced rather high and constant oil content (%). The maximum values of oil content (0.051 and 0.057%) were obtained as a result of third level of compost (39.6 t/ha) during the first and second seasons, respectively. The same trend and

results were observed for oil yield (ml/plant) where the maximum mean value of oil yield (0.189 and 0.494 ml/plant) was obtained as a result of applying compost at 16.5 t/fed. for first and second seasons, respectively. 3.3.2. Effect of plant spacing The influence of plant spacing on essential oil content (%) and yield (ml/plant) is revealed in Tables 4 and 5. It is clear that distances 30 and 40 cm gave the highest mean values of oil content during first and second seasons, respectively. Taking into consideration the effect of planting spaces on essential oil yield (ml/plant), it is clear from the same table that wider spaces were the most favored for the highest oil yield. The essential oil records were 0.120 ml/plant, 0.144 ml/plant, 0.168 ml/plant versus 0.153 ml/plant, 0.325 ml/plant, 0.363 ml/plant due to the distances 20, 30 and 40 cm planting spaces in the two seasons, respectively.

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Table 5 Vegetative growth and essential oil content of Dracocephalum moldovica L. as influenced by various compost levels, plant distances and their interaction (second season 2002–2003) Character

Plant height (cm)

No. of branches/plant

(a) Compost levels Control Compost 1 Compost 2 Compost 3

51.00 72.67 77.70 77.22

21.44 28.01 28.80 28.53

4.45 6.06

L.S.D. at 5% 1%

(b) Different distances 20 cm 70.57 30 cm 71.27 40 cm 67.10 L.S.D. at 5% 1%

N.S. N.S.

Dry weight (g/plant)

Oil (%)

Oil yield (ml/plant)

109.23 695.30 497.10 843.97

17.16 118.01 96.12 118.94

0.044 0.048 0.044 0.057

0.049 0.331 0.246 0.494

0.63 0.86

23.36 31.81

2.36 3.21

0.003 0.005

0.015 0.020

25.01 28.82 26.26

435.83 563.30 610.10

78.88 101.79 107.01

0.042 0.051 0.052

0.153 0.325 0.363

0.55 0.74

20.23 27.56

2.04 2.78

0.003 0.004

0.013 0.017

105.9 114.3 107.5

23.67 16.10 11.70

0.068 0.041 0.023

0.072 0.047 0.025

(c) Interaction between compost levels and different distances Control (cm) 20 56.00 17.33 30 50.66 20.67 40 46.33 26.33

Fresh weight (g/plant)

Compost 1 (cm) 20 72.30 30 75.00 40 70.70

27.00 29.70 27.33

698.6 728.8 658.6

111.77 128.00 114.27

0.026 0.061 0.057

0.178 0.441 0.375

Compost 2 (cm) 20 76.67 30 79.72 40 76.70

26.70 32.00 27.70

409.3 376.5 705.5

81.83 77.87 128.67

0.026 0.037 0.070

0.106 0.139 0.491

Compost 3 (cm) 20 77.30 30 79.70 40 74.67

29.00 32.92 23.67

529.5 1033.6 968.8

98.23 185.20 173.40

0.048 0.065 0.058

0.254 0.672 0.557

4.08 5.56

0.006 0.008

0.026 0.035

L.S.D. at 5% 1%

N.S. N.S.

1.10 1.50

40.45 55.11

Compost 1: 13.2 t/ha; Compost 2: 26.4 t/ha; Compost 3: 39.6 t/ha; hectare = 2.381 fed.

3.3.3. Effect of interaction treatments As for the effect of combined treatments of adding compost and planting spaces (Tables 4 and 5), the maximum mean value of essential oil content (%) was observed as a result of the interaction between compost (39.6 t/ha) and narrower space (20 cm) during the first season while the combination between compost at 26.4 t/ha and wider space (40 cm) gave the maximum one in the second season. On the other hand, the yield of essential oil (ml/plant) reached its maximum value as a result of the combination treatment between compost at 39.6 t/ ha and wider space (40 cm) in the first season and medium space (30 cm) through second season. Moreover, it can be observed that there is no significant difference between the combination effect of compost at 39.6 t/ha interaction wider or medium in both seasons on essential oil yield where their values were 0.214 ml/plant and 0.190 ml/plant versus 0.557 ml/plant and 0.672 ml/plant in the first and second seasons, respectively.

The increment of essential oil yield may be due to the enhancement of mass production or/and essential oil content (%). 3.4. Photosynthetic pigments and total carbohydrate content 3.4.1. Effect of compost Results presented in Tables 6 and 7 revealed that chlorophyll a (mg/g) and total carbohydrate (%) increased by applying compost from 13.2/ up to 39.6 t compost/ha during both seasons. Moreover, chlorophyll b (mg/g) and total chlorophyll a + b (mg/g) reached their maximum values as a result of compost application at 13.2 and 26.4 t/ha, respectively, during both seasons. On the other hand, the highest mean value of carotenoids (mg/g) was obtained as a result of compost at 26.4 and 39.6 t/ha during first and second seasons, respectively.

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Table 6 Carbohydrate and photosynthetic pigment content of Dracocephalum moldovica L. as influenced by various compost levels, plant distances and their interaction (first season 2001–2002) Chlorophyll b (mg 1)

Total chlorophyll (mg 1)

Total carotenoids (mg 1)

Total carbohydrate (%)

(a) Compost levels Control 1.09 Compost 1 1.16 Compost 2 1.21 Compost 3 1.23

0.84 0.94 0.92 0.81

1.93 2.10 2.13 1.91

0.91 0.96 1.02 0.95

29.67 31.33 34.93 35.94

(b) Different distances (cm) 20 1.13 30 1.17 40 1.22

0.86 0.86 0.86

1.95 2.02 2.08

0.89 0.94 1.06

28.58 32.95 37.50

1.94 1.97 1.88

0.76 0.92 1.04

26.00 31.00 32.50

Character

Chlorophyll a (mg 1)

(c) Interaction between compost levels and different distances Control (cm) 20 1.08 0.86 30 1.09 0.88 40 1.11 0.77 Compost 1 (cm) 20 1.11 30 1.16 40 1.22

0.99 0.85 0.99

2.10 2.01 2.21

0.86 0.91 1.12

26.50 31.50 36.00

Compost 2 (cm) 20 1.15 30 1.22 40 1.25

0.79 0.99 0.98

1.94 2.21 2.23

1.01 1.03 1.03

30.50 32.30 42.00

Compost 3 (cm) 20 1.19 30 1.20 40 1.30

0.61 0.70 0.70

1.80 1.90 2.00

0.92 0.89 1.04

31.33 37.00 39.50

Compost 1: 13.2 t/ha; Compost 2: 26.4 t/ha; Compost 3: 39.6 t/ha; hectare = 2.381 fed.

3.4.2. Effect of plant spacing Data tabulated in Tables 6 and 7 show that the wider spacing gave highest mean values of photosynthetic pigments chlorophyll a and b and carotenoids content (mg/g) as well as carbohydrate content (%). Thus, the highest total chlorophyll content for both seasons was equal and reached 2.08 mg/g with wider distance, while the corresponding values were 1.95 and 1.99 mg/g for narrow distance. Similarly the carotenoids content reached 1.06 and 0.80 mg/g in two successive seasons, respectively, for 40 cm distance while its accumulation reached 0.89 and 0.71 mg/g for narrow distance (20 cm) for both successive seasons. For the total carbohydrate accumulation, the increment in first and second seasons for wider distance compared with narrow ones reached 31.2 and 21.78%, respectively. 3.4.3. Effect of interaction treatments Concerning the combination effect between plant spacing and different concentrations of compost fertilizer, data presented in Tables 6 and 7 show that plant spaces at different distances and fertilized by compost at various levels had a promotive effect on photosynthetic pigments and carbohydrate content compared with those unfertilized. However, the highest mean values of chlorophyll a, carotenoids and total carbohydrate content were recorded with wider plant distance and highest compost level.

3.5. Oil constituents The relative percentage of the main constituents of the essential oil of different treatments during the second season is shown in Table 8. Linalool was found to be the major compound in the most treatments followed by geranial. Linalool ranged from 16.79% for the combination between the second level of compost and the narrow distance to 36.48% for the combination between the first level of compost and wider planting distance. On the other hand, different treatments effect on the hydrocarbons constituents ranged from 2.30% for the combination between the maximum level of compost and the narrow distance (20 cm) and 7.5% for the combination between the same level of compost and the medium distance (30 cm). However, the total oxygenated derivatives percentage ranged from 83.10% as a result of the third level of compost under the medium distance to 97.70% for the combination effect between the same level of compost with the narrow distance (20 cm). 4. Discussion 4.1. Growth character As mentioned before, it can be noticed that growth characters of dragonhead plants were increased with compost

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Table 7 Carbohydrate and photosynthetic pigment content of Dracocephalum moldovica L. as influenced by various compost levels, plant distances and their interaction (second season 2001–2002) Chlorophyll b (mg 1)

Total chlorophyll (mg 1)

Total carotenoids (mg 1)

Total carbohydrate (%)

(a) Compost levels Control 1.11 Compost 1 1.15 Compost 2 1.23 Compost 3 1.25

0.89 0.96 0.93 0.82

2.00 2.11 2.16 2.07

0.93 0.98 0.98 0.103

28.72 32.67 34.50 36.22

(b) Different distances (cm) 20 1.15 30 1.19 40 1.21

0.79 0.81 0.86

1.88 2.33 2.00

0.100 0.102 0.107

33.03 35.67 39.96

1.98 2.02 1.99

0.88 0.92 0.99

25.50 27.07 33.59

Character

Chlorophyll a (mg 1)

(c) Interaction between compost levels and different distances Control (cm) 20 1.09 0.89 30 1.11 0.91 40 1.12 0.87 Compost 1 (cm) 20 1.12 30 1.16 40 1.17

0.98 0.96 0.94

2.00 2.12 2.11

0.86 0.91 1.13

26.50 31.50 37.47

Compost 2 (cm) 20 1.19 30 1.22 40 1.25

0.89 0.92 0.98

2.11 2.14 2.23

0.97 0.97 1.00

33.50 35.67 34.33

Compost 3 (cm) 20 1.20 30 1.25 40 1.30

0.79 0.81 0.86

0.79 0.81 0.86

0.100 0.102 0.107

33.03 35.67 39.96

Compost 1: 13.2 t/ha; Compost 2: 26.4 t/ha; Compost 3: 39.6 t/ha; hectare = 2.381 fed.

treatments. These results may be attributed to the role of macroand micro-nutrients provided by compost as well as the improved soil conditions due to compost, in stimulating metabolic processes, encouraging growth and increasing the synthesis and accumulation of more metabolites in plant tissues. Several investigators mentioned similar results on different plants such as O’Brien and Barker (1996) on peppermint, Herrera et al. (1997) on horehound, thyme and angelica plants as those of El-Desuki et al. (2001) on sweet fennel, Khalil et al. (2002) on T. erecta and Khalil and El-Sherbeny (2003) on three Mentha species plants, who observed that increasing compost levels in soil media significantly improved growth characters. Concerning the effect of plant spacing, the obtained data revealed that wide distance decreased plant height. This might be due to the rapid differentiation of cells in wide spacing than in narrow ones. Wahba and Ezz El-Din (2002) on C. coronarium and Poma et al. (1996) on castor bean reported similar results, while opposite trends were found by Zayed et al. (2003) on borage plant and Shalaby et al. (1997) on E. purpurea. Also, number of branches/plant was increased with increasing the distance of plants. This finding was reported by different authors such as Das et al. (1992) on black cumin and Zayed et al. (2003) on borage plants. Moreover, growth character as fresh and dry weights demonstrated that the widest distance resulted in highest fresh

and dry weights of herb. Similarly, different authors found the promotion effect of wider plant spacing on vegetative growth characters such as Jhan et al. (1991) on Zinnia elegans, Belyaonka et al. (1997) on Chrysanthemum and Wahba and Ezz El-Din (2002) on C. coronarium L. plants. The promotive effect of the widest distance on growth characters may be due to increment in the amount of nutrients uptake or/and getting more quantity from solar energy for plant. So, the favorable effect of the interaction treatments between compost levels and plant distance was due to as described above . 4.2. Essential oil percentage and yield The compost treatments produced rather high and constant oil content (%). Applying compost at 39.6 t/ha caused an increase in essential oil content. The same results were obtained for oil yield/plant. This result may be due to effect of compost on accelerating metabolism reactions as well as stimulating enzymes. This increment may be due to the effect of compost on mass production or/and oil content. Such findings were retrieved by many investigators such as Letchamo (1992, 1993) and El-Desuki et al. (2001) on three chamomile genotypes and sweet fennel, El-Masry and Dahab (2001) on Pelargonium graveolens, Khalil et al. (2002) on T. erecta as well as Naguib (2003) on chamomile plant.

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329

Table 8 The influence of compost levels on essential oil composition of Dracocephalum moldavica L. planting under different distance (second season 2002/2003) Compounds

Treatments Control

a-Pinene Camphene Myrcene b-Pinene Sabinene Cubebene Limonene B-phellandrene 1,8-Cineol Fenchone Linalool Geranial Geraniol Neryl acetate Geranyl acetate Nerol Caryophellene oxide a-Thujone b-Thujone Nonarol Camphor b-Caryophellene Methyl chavicol Carvone Cadinene Methyl eugenol Methyl iso eugenol Carvacrol Apiole Isophytol Phytol

Compost 1

Compost 2

Compost 3

20 cm

30 cm

40 cm

20 cm

30 cm

40 cm

20 cm

30 cm

40 cm

20 cm

30 cm

40 cm

2.2 0.3 0.5 0.1 0.5 0.2 0.9 0.2 0.5 15.6 27.0 24.2 7.9 0.8 1.1 0.5 0.7 0.4 2.0 1.4 3.9 0.3 0.3 0.7 0.1 0.3 1.2 1.0 2.7 0.4 1.9

0.2 0.9 0.5 0.2 0.6 1.0 0.3 0.7 – 18.7 34.1 17.5 8.0 0.3 0.5 0.2 1.8 0.7 0.5 1.1 4.2 0.3 0.2 – – – 3.0 – 3.2 – 1.4

0.4 2.4 0.5 0.5 0.7 0.1 0.7 – – 15.2 34.7 16.8 9.0 – – – 1.1 0.2 – 1.4 2.4 – 0.1 – – 2.0 1.7 – 3.7 – 6.5

0.3 0.2 0.4 0.7 0.9 0.5 0.7 0.2 0.3 14.8 36.2 15.5 9.6 0.2 0.2 0.2 0.3 0.8 1.7 2.4 1.9 0.2 0.4 0.1 1.0 0.8 1.3 1.4 3.1 2.0 1.9

0.2 0.3 0.3 0.2 0.4 0.2 0.7 0.3 0.5 19.0 35.6 13.2 9.5 0.8 0.2 0.2 0.7 0.2 0.2 2.4 1.7 0.4 0.6 0.2 0.8 1.4 1.3 1.9 1.6 3.2 1.8

0.3 0.4 0.3 0.4 0.8 0.5 0.6 0.8 0.5 23.7 37.5 12.8 9.9 1.0 0.4 0.2 0.5 0.2 2.1 2.0 0.1 0.6 1.6 0.2 1.6 0.3 0.1 0.6 0.9 0.7 1.0

2.2 1.8 0.5 0.5 0.6 – – – – 10.0 16.8 18.6 5.0 1.0 2.1 0.6 0.6 0.8 – 9.0 7.0 0.5 0.5 – – 1.6 3.1 2.8 5.1 5.5 4.0

3.6 0.8 0.8 2.1 1.2 3.1 4.7 0.6 0.7 9.4 18.4 11.6 2.2 0.9 2.4 6.5 1.2 0.7 1.0 1.2 5.4 0.6 2.5 2.9 0.6 1.2 3.6 2.4 3.2 2.4 2.5

0.1 0.2 0.5 0.2 0.1 0.3 0.3 2.2 1.5 9.7 21.8 14.1 3.2 0.7 2.5 4.7 1.1 0.4 0.4 7.4 5.3 0.3 2.3 2.9 2.3 1.1 3.2 3.3 3.1 2.3 2.9

0.1 0.2 0.3 0.3 0.1 0.3 0.3 0.6 1.2 9.5 23.5 14.3 4.8 3.0 2.5 1.6 2.2 0.5 1.7 0.4 5.8 0.4 2.7 1.4 2.4 3.4 4.4 3.9 3.4 1.9 2.8

1.6 1.3 1.6 1.1 0.9 1.0 – – – 9.8 25.0 15.5 6.9 0.5 1.5 1.4 2.6 0.0 1.5 1.5 6.0 2.0 1.2 3.1 3.4 – – 4.0 3.6 1.9 1.0

1.5 1.3 1.3 0.3 0.3 0.3 – – – 9.9 26.3 16.7 6.3 1.0 1.8 1.0 2.3 1.9 – 3.5 5.2 1.2 1.9 – 2.6 – – 5.3 4.5 2.5 1.4

The components were listed according to retention time.

Concerning the effect of plant spacing on essential oil, wider spaces offer ample quantity of nutrients, light and other factors which in turn was reflected on the biomass formation, plant height and essential oil content. On the other hand, when calculating the yield in a unit area, the narrower spaces will contain high number of plants and consequently more yield will be obtained. Thus, the heavier plants obtained in the wider spaces in the same unit area may reach the yield obtained in the narrower distance noticed. In the present study a positive relationship between increasing plant density and oil percentage was found; the same finding was reported by El-Sherbeny et al. (2005) on Sideretis montana plants and Sadek et al. (1992) on rosemary plants (El-Dean and Ahmed, 1997). 4.3. Photosynthetic pigments and total carbohydrate content Data obtained indicated that compost application up to 39.6 t/ha resulted in increasing chlorophyll a and b, carotenoids and total carbohydrate, so photosynthetic pigments showed almost similar trend of other growth

characters. This might be reasonable since the improvement of growth characters is mainly a result of stimulation in photosynthetic apparatus that leads to more photosynthesis and food reserve. The beneficial effects of compost on the accumulation of photosynthetic pigments were previously observed by El-Ashry et al. (1995, 1997) on amaryllis and Pepperonia obtusifolia, respectively, Khalil et al. (2002) on T. erecta and Khalil and El-Sherbeny (2003) on three Mentha species. Plant spacing had the same effect of compost application on photosynthetic pigments and total carbohydrate content where wider distance (40 cm) causes an increase in amounts of pigments and carbohydrates. The promotive effect of wider distance on photosynthetic pigments and carbohydrate content was reported with T. erecta and S. montana (Mohamed and Wahba, 1993; El-Sherbeny et al., 2005). 4.4. Oil constituents Concerning oil constituents, results obtained revealed that linalool was detected as the major compound while geraniol

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was found as major compound in combination treatments. In this connection, Shatar and Altantsetseg (2000) reported that linalool (67.0%) was the major constituent of the oil of dragonhead plants cultivated in Magnolia. Meanwhile, in North and South Finland, the major constituents were geranyl acetate (39.5–43.9%), geraniol (21.7–18.3%) and neral (14.7–13.8%) as revealed by Galambosi et al. (2002). Generally, it could be observed that there was a positive correlation between total hydrocarbon compounds percentage and planting distance. The inconsistent trend for the effect of various compost levels and different plants distances on essential oil constituents of dragonhead plants was also reported by El-Sherbeny et al. (2005) on S. montana plants. In conclusion, it could be concluded that under Egyptian environmental condition, the application of compost fertilizer at level of 39.6 t/ha to D. moldavica plants cultivated at 30 cm distance between plants is recommended for good plant growth with highest chemical constituents as well as more essential oil content, which lead at the end to improving the productivity of this plants. References A.O.A.C., 1990. Official Methods of Analysis. Association of Official Agricultural Chemists, Washington, DC, U.S.A. Aziz, E.E., El-Sherbeny, S.E., 2003. Effect of some micro-nutrients on growth and chemical constituents of Sideritis montana as a new plant introduced into Egypt. Arab Univ. J. Agric. Sci., Ain Shams Univ., Cairo 12 (1), 391– 403. Balyan, S.S., Sobti, S.N., 1990. Effect of inter and intra row spacing on growth, yield and eugenol content in Ocimum gratissimum L. Indian Perfumer 34 (3), 217. Belyaonka, D.V., Bist, M.A., Wakde, M.B., 1997. Effect of levels of nitrogen and phosphorus with different spacing on growth and yield of annual Chrysanthemum. J. Soils Crops 6 (2), 154. Boikova, V.V., Akulova, Z.V., 1995. Effect of infusion of some medicinal plants on ovulation in experimental animals. Rastitel’nye-Resursursy 31 (2), 57– 60. Chachoyan, A.A., Oganesyan, G.B., 1996. Antitumor activity of some species of family Lamiaceae. Rastitel 32 (4), 59–64. Chapman, H.D., Pratt, P.F., 1978. Methods of Analysis for Soils and Water, second ed. University of California, Division of Agriculture, pp. 150–161 (Chapter 17). Das, A.K., Sadhu, M.K., Som, M.G., Bos, T.K., 1992. Effect of spacing on growth and yield of black cumin. Indian-Cocoa, Arecanut Species J. 16 (1), 17–18. Dubois, M., Gilles, K.A., Hamilton, J.K., Rebers, P.A., Smit, F., 1956. Colorimetric method for determination of sugars and related substances. Anal. Chem. 28 (3), 350–356. Galambosi, B., Galambosi, Z.S., Perrala, R., Reppcak, M., 2002. Yield and quality of selected herb cultivars in Finland. Acta Hort. 576, 139–149. El-Ashry, A.I., Auda, M.S., Bakry, M.Y., 1995. Response of Amaryllis (Hippeastrum vittatum, herb) to different growing media and chemical fertilization levels. J. Agric. Res., Tanta Univ. 21 (4), 754–769. El-Ashry, A.I., Auda, M.S., Bakry, M.Y., 1997. Effect of different growing media on growth and production of some foliage plants. I—response of Peperomia obtusifolia to different growing media. Egypt. J. Appl. Sci. 12 (3), 146–159. El-Dean, E., Ahmed, T., 1997. Influence of plant distance and some phosphorus fertilization sources on black cumin (Nigella sativa L.) plants. Assiut J. Agric. Sci. 28 (2), 39–56. El-Desuki, M., Amer, A.H., Sawan, O.M., Khattab, M.E., 2001. Effect of irrigation and organic fertilization on the growth, bulb yield and quality of

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