Influence of fertilization on growth, yield and chemical constituents of Lallemantia iberica plant

El-Sherbeny E. S.; Badawy M. E.; Hussein S. M.; Hendawy S. F.; El-Kadya F. Y. A.; Amer M.H.

Authors

El-Sherbeny E. S. Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research Department, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt
Badawy M. E. Ornamental Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
Hussein S. M. Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research Department, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt
Hendawy S. F. Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research Department, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt
El-Kadya F. Y. A. Ornamental Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University, Giza, Egypt
Amer M.H. Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research Department, National Research Centre, Giza, Egypt

Keywords:

Lallemantia iberica, Nitrogen, compost, biofertilizer, rhizobacterin, vegetative growth and yield, essential oil, fixed oil, mucilage, carbohydrates, fatty acids

Abstract

This investigation was carried out to study the influence of fertilizers on growth, yield and chemical constituents of Lallemantia iberica (Bieb.). The field experiments were carried out during two successive seasons, 2010/2011 and 2011l2012 at Sekem farm (50km from Cairo North East Governorate, Egypt) on Lallemantia iberica(Bieb.) to study the effect of mineral nitrogen fertilizer (140 and 200kg N ha^-1) or compost as organic fertilizer (12 and 18 tons ha^-1) alone or in combination with bio fertilizer (rhizobacterin). Growth characters, nutrients content, total carbohydrate (%), mucilage (%) fixed and essential oil were determined. The data revealed that various fertilizer levels, in general, improved the different growth characteristics as well as the amount of studied chemical constituent’s content. The highest values regarding plant height, number of branches, total fresh and dry weights, nutrients content, as well as total carbohydrates and mucilage were recorded as a result of application of combined fertilizer of compost at 7.5 Ton + 90 Kg N / Fed. and rhizobacterin. The accumulation of fixed and essential oils were also promoted by the various fertilizer treatments.