Effect of hydrogel and antitranspirants treatments on the productivity of sweet basil (ocimum basilicum l.)‎ plant

Abstract EN

This investigation was conducted in El-Qantara Sharq Station, North Sinai, Desert Research Center, Egypt during the two successive seasons 2014 and 2015 to study the effect of applying certain antitranspirants (5 % kaolin and 6% calcium carbonate), hydrogel levels (0, 1, 2 g / plant) and the interaction between them on the vegetative growth parameters and essential oil production of the sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.).

The results illustrate that the plant, which was sprayed with 5 % kaolin produced the highest vegetative growth parameters, essential oil production measurement and chemical components.

The different hydrogel levels significantly increased all growth characters.

The highest values were produced from sweet basil plants with application with 2 g hydrogel / plant.

Regarding the effect of the interaction between foliar application with antitranspirant and different hydrogel levels, the combined treatment of applying hydrogel level of 2 g /plant with spraying the plants with 5 % kaolin gave significant increase in all growth characters.

The main components of essential oil were linalool, α-terpineol and 1,8 cineol.

The combined treatment of foliar kaolin application at 5 % level with hydrogel level of 2 g/plant has given the highest content of linalool (35.43 %) , α-terpineol (27.80 %) and 1,8 cineol (12.09 %) , while decreased methyl chavicol (undesirable component) (0.75 %) compared with control plant and other treatments.