THYME   (THYMUS  VULGARIS L.)  GROWTH, OIL QUALITY, YIELD AND CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AS AFFECTED BY

OF CHELATED IRON AND TWO POTASSEIN FORMS

[61]

Naguib¹, Nabila Y.

ABSTRACT

Various characters of Thymus vulgaris L. as plant height, number of branches per plant, fresh and dry herbage yield, chlorophylls pigments, carbohydrates and minerals content in leaves were significantly improved by twice sprays of chelated Fe at 50 ppm concentration, K-P or K-N potasseins at two rates and their combination treatments, during the two successive seasons (1999-2000 and 2000-2001). Oil% and oil yield / plant or per fed. has attained similar results. 50ppm. Fe + 6 L/fed. (K-N) potassein treatment produced the best results. The values of the studied characters during the second cut and the second season were higher than those of the first ones. The components of thyme oil were influenced by different treatments. The major constituents of the oil were thymol (36.614%), α-thujone (23.214%) and 1.8 cineol (13.423)%, while the components present in the least percent were  eugenol, borneol, p-cymene and β- pinene. Thus; it would be concluded that the high herbage and oil yield of thyme plants with best quality could be obtained by similar treatments 50 ppm Fe +6L/fed(K-N).