Biotech Studies 2016, Vol 25, Num, 2     (Pages: 202-208)

The Effect of Photoperiod on the Biomass and Quality Variables of Certain Origanum spp.

Reyhan BAHTİYARCA BAĞDAT 1 ,Aditya VYAS 2 ,Lyle E. CRAKER 3

1 Central Research Institute for Field Crops, Ankara, Turkey
2 Department of Pharmacy, BITS Pilani Hyderabad Campus, Hyderabad, India.
3 University of Massachusetts, Stockbridge School of Agriculture, Amherst, MA, U.S.A
DOI : 10.21566/tarbitderg.281342 - The biomass and essential oil yield of Origanum vulgare var. hirtum and O. syriacum were investigated under 10 h, 13 h and 16 h fluorescent light with a temperature of 25°C (77 F) in the growth chamber. The effect of different photoperiods to the yield and quality variables of both species were recorded. The observations were taken from early flowering stage of the plants. The highest plant height was obtained from O. syriacum with 13h photoperiod as 32.78 cm. The maximum number of shoot was recorded at O. vulgare var. hirtum as 14.3 per plant from 13h. The maximum canopy diameter was received from O. syriacum at 10h, and the measurements in horizontal and vertical directions were 28.63 cm and 25.73 cm, respectively. This application also had the highest essential oil content with 2.09%. After transplanting these both species` pots to the fields (ALC, Agricultural Learning Center, UMass, Amherst) three different cuttings were carried out, the highest carvacrol yield was determined from the late fall harvest of O. vulgare var. hirtum with 74.55%, and O. syriacum with 33.35%. Keywords : Origanum vulgare var. hirtum, Origanum syriacum, photoperiodism, carvacrol