Improvement growth and chemical components of Cardoon plant through foliar application of nutrients and vitamins
Hend M Swaefy and Shimaa A Shaaban
The study was carried out at the Department of Ornamental Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Cairo University during the two successive seasons of 2017/2018 and 2018/2019 to investigate the effect of ascorbic acid at 50 and 100 ppm, folic acid at 10 and 25 ppm, and nutrients mixture at the rate of 10 ml/3L on the growth and chemical composition of Synara cardunculus var. altilis plant. The results showed that ascorbic acid had more enhancement effect on the leaf parameters compared with folic acid. Ascorbic acid at 50 ppm had a superior effect on the average leaf fresh weight (g), herb fresh weight (g), number of heads per plant, number of seeds per head, seed yield per plant (g), seed oil percentage and total phenols content compared to the other treatments. Supplying plants with the combination of nutrients mixture and vitamins (ascorbic or folic acid) had better improvement on total flavonoids than the vitamin alone. The identified components in fixed oil were Linoleic, Myristelaidic and Oleic as unsaturated fatty acids and Caprylic, Undecylic, Lauric, Tridecylic, Myristic, Palmitic and Stearic as saturated fatty acids.The highest total unsaturated fatty acids were found with the treatment of 10 ppm folic acid compared to the other treatments. The highest content of linoleic was found with the treatment of 25 ppm folic acid followed by the treatment of 10 ppm folic acid. Regarding the effect of foliar application with the best treatment (50 ppm ascorbic acid) on the anatomical structure, it could be stated that this treatment caused a marked increase in measurements and counts of the leaf internal tissues.
Hend M Swaefy, Shimaa A Shaaban. Improvement growth and chemical components of Cardoon plant through foliar application of nutrients and vitamins. J Med Plants Stud 2019;7(6):92-100.