Essential Oil Content and Composition of Sweet Basil (Ocimum basilicum.L) Under Integrated Nutrient Management

Abstract

Field experiments were conducted at ICAR - Indian Institute of Horticultural Research, Bengaluru during Kharif season of 2015 and 2016 with nine treatments and three replications in a randomized block design to find out the effects of integrated nutrient management on Quantity and Quality of essential oil of basil (Ocimum basilicum) . The results revealed that combined application of recommended FYM (10 t ha-1) and NPK (160:80:80 kg ha-1) registered the highest oil yield in the main crop (211.94, 187.46 l ha-1) and in ratoon (144.36, 70.81 l ha-1) during 2015, 2016, respectively. For oil quality, the main constituents of basil essential oil have been reported and the result showed that chemical compositions of the essential oil for sweet basil were affected by fertilizers in the maincrop and ratoon during two years of the experiment. In general, application of NPK (160:80:80 kg ha-1) + FYM (10 t ha-1) i.e., T9 recorded the best quality. The results obtainedfrom this study demonstrated that integrated nutrient management can maximize nutrient absorption as a result of increased soil fertility which reflected on oil yield and quality.