ISHS Acta Horticulturae 306: International Symposium on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, XXIII IHC
THE INFLUENCE OF CHEMICAL WEED CONTROL ON QUALITY CHARACTERS OF MEDICINAL AND AROMATIC PLANTS |
| Author: | F. Pank |
| Abstract:
The efficiency of the weed control measures has an important influence on the rentability of medicinal and aromatic plant cropping. 90–95 per cent of the total expenditure of manpower hours in the production process is used by manual weed removal in many species. This expense could be diminished by 88 per cent by herbicide application under the conditions of the Germany. Pank, 1990 (17) evaluated more than 400 field experiments to give proof of the influence of herbicides on several characters. According to the investigation of 22 different active principles in 16 species it can be stated, that the quality is not deteriorated in most cases, if the crop is tolerant of the herbicides. Phytotoxic herbicides caused changes in a greater extent. That points at the possibility of the herbicide influence on quality characters in general. Herbicides, that were tolerated by the plants, influenced the quality characters in the following manner on an average of all estimations: increase of the leaf portion of herbs and the content of essential oils and decrease of the dry matter. The content of the following substances was slightly increased: menthon (peppermint), thujon (sage), morphin (poppy), hypericin (St.John's wort) and valepotriate (Valeriana). A decrease of terpinenol (marjoram) and anethol (fennel) was observed. The non-phytotoxic herbicides did not influence the content of the following substances; matricin (camomile), carvon (caraway), menthol (peppermint), total phenol (thyme), raw protein and raw fat (poppy seeds). Although the probability of the deterioration of quality characters by herbicide treatment is low, it is necessary to give proof of their influence before their application is recommended in medicinal and aromatic plant cultivation. If herbicides are used according to the prescriptions, the quality is not deteriorated and is some cases even improved. | |
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files) | |
