Planta Med 2008; 74 - PI46
DOI: 10.1055/s-0028-1084954

Influence of soil nitrogen level and plant spacing on essential oil content and composition of German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla)

M Rafieiolhossaini 1, 2, A Adams 3, N De Kimpe 3, P Van Damme 1
  • 1Laboratory of Tropical and Subtropical Agronomy and Ethnobotany, Coupure links 653, B- 9000 Gent, Belgium
  • 2Department of Agronomy, Faculty of Agriculture, Shahrekord University, Shahrekord, Iran
  • 3Department of Organic Chemistry, Faculty of Bioscience engineering, Coupure links 653, B- 9000 Gent, Belgium

German chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) is an essential oil bearing plant belonging to Asteraceae family. Reports concerning the effects of nitrogen fertilizer and spacing on essential oil content and composition are contradictory and fragmentary [1–5]. The objective of the present study was to determine the influence of the combined effect of nitrogen and spacing on essential oil content and composition of German chamomile grown in Belgium. The study was carried out on a loamy sand soil at Ghent University, Belgium, during 2006. The experiment was laid out as a Randomized Complete Block (RCB) with split plot design having 3 replications. N level 0 [ (control), 40, and 80kg/ha] was used as the main plot factor, while inter-row spacings of 10, 15 and 20cm were used into subplots. Intra row spacing was kept constant at 10cm. Nitrogen (as NH4NO3) was applied in two splits. Half of the total N was applied at transplantation and the rest before flower initiation. 45-day-old seedlings were transplanted to the field. After drying the flowers, essential oil was isolated by Likens-Nickerson extraction followed by GC-MS analysis. Results indicate that nitrogen had significant effects on the content of chamazulene, α-bisabolone oxide and (z)-spiroether. Measured traits were not significantly influenced by inter-row spacing except for essential oil content whereby the highest amount was obtained for the lowest density. It seems that nitrogen has a more pronounced effect on the content of active substances of German chamomile as compared to the plant spacing.

References: 1. Janick, J., Simon, J.E. (1993) New crops. Wiley, New York.

2. Johri, A.K. et al. (1992) Indian J. Agron. 37:302–304.

3. Hadj Seyed Hadi, M. et al. (2002) Iranian J. Crop Sci. 4:208–217.

4. Bouverat, J. P. and P. Gicquiaud (1989) Herba Gallica.1:67–71.

5. Zaleki, R. (1972) Herba Polonica 18:70–78.