IMPROVEMENT OF GROWTH AND YIELD OF BLACK CUMIN PLANT BY ACTIVE DRY YEAST AND SOME VITAMINS

Ismail, Sakina I.; Khafagy, Mahmoud A.; Khater, Mortada R.

doi:10.21608/jpp.2007.221135

IMPROVEMENT OF GROWTH AND YIELD OF BLACK CUMIN PLANT BY ACTIVE DRY YEAST AND SOME VITAMINS

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

¹ Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants Research, Horticulture Research Institute, Agricultural Research Center, EGYPT

² Department of Agricultural Botany, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, EGYPT.

10.21608/jpp.2007.221135

Abstract

Two pot experiments were carried out in the experimental farm of Agricultural Botany Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Mansoura University, Mansoura, Egypt, during the two growing seasons of 2004 and 2005 to investigate the effect of presoaking black cumin seeds in vitamins (ascorbic acid at 25 or 50 ppm, thiamine at 50 or 100 ppm and α tocopherol at 10 or 20 ppm) and active dry yeast at 1000 or 2000 ppm on black cumin plant growth and yield and its components.
The results indicated that presoaking seeds in vitamins and active dry yeast lead to an increase in vegetative growth in terms of plant height, number of leaves, number of lateral branches and fresh and dry weight per plant. Data also showed that α tocopherol at 10 and 20 ppm, thiamine at 50 ppm and yeast at 1000 ppm delayed significantly flowering and fruiting date While, other treatments hastened flowering and fruiting in both seasons.Application of vitamins and active dry yeast caused a marked increase in number of capsules and seed yield per plant as well as volatile oil and fixed oil percentage in addition to oil content per plant. Yeast at 2000 ppm and α tocopherol at 20 ppm were the best treatments.