Enhancement of Vegetative Growth Criteria and Accumulation of Secondary Metabolites by Using Compost Tea and Paclobutrazol on Henna (Lawsonia inermis L.) Plants

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Horticulture, Faculty of Agriculture, Beni-Suef University, Egypt

2 Department of Biochemistry, Faculty of Agriculture, Beni-Suef University, Egypt.

3 Department of Medicinal and Aromatic plants, Faculty of Agriculture, Beni-Suef University, Egypt.

Abstract

A pot experiment was carried out during the two successive seasons of 2018 and 2019 at Beni-Suef governorate, Egypt, to investigate the effect of compost tea and foliar-spray application of paclobutrazol (PBZ) on vegetative growth characteristics and some chemical constituents of henna plants.
Obtained results revealed that the best vegetative growth characters (plant height, number of main branches/plant, number of lateral branches/main branches, leaves number per plant, leaves fresh and dry weights/plant), photosynthetic pigments (chlorophyll a, b and carotenoids) and chemical characteristics (total carbohydrates, tannins, lawsone and NPK percentages), were obtained due to the use of the all levels of compost tea (15, 30 and 60 ml/l). Concerning paclobutrazol treatments, all of the prementioned characters except plant height, chlorophyll b and phosphorus percentage were considerably augmented due to PBZ treatments.
There for, it could be advised from the environmental point of view, to supply henna plants with compost tea 60 ml/l, in combination with 100 or 150 ppm of paclobutrazol in order to obtain the best leaves, lawsone and tannins yield of henna plants.

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