3. Results and Discussion
3.6. Chemical Analysis
3.6.1. Total Chlorophyll Content
Data presented in Table (4) clearly show that decreasing the irrigation level or AA significantly decreased the total chlorophyll content of rosemary leaves. The positive effect of higher levels of both irrigation and AA was clearly observed when the interaction between them was occurred. Applying the highest level of AA resulted in the highest chlorophyll content under any FC level especially under 100% FC.
3.6.2. Total Carbohydrate Percentage
The total carbohydrate percentage was significantly increased by deficit irrigation and the highest percentage was recorded by lowest irrigation level however, higher irrigation level decreased the carbohydrate percentage in both cuts (Table 4). The increase of the AA levels, the increase of the total carbohydrate percentage was observed. The improvement occurred by the previous treatment was significant compared to the control or the other AA levels. Results concerning the interaction effect of irrigation and AA levels show that the treatment of 60 % FC combined with any AA level recorded higher percentage than 80 or 100% FC combined with the same AA level.
3.6.3. N, P and K Percentages in Leaves
Based on our experimental data, the percentage of N, P and K were decreased by decreasing the irrigation or AA levels in both cuts. The highest values in this respect were recorded by applying 100%
FC or 4 ml L-1 AA treatments (Table 4). The effects of FC and AA treatments were clearly appeared when the combination between them was occurred. Applying the 4 ml L-1 AA treatment resulted in the maximum values in this respect under any irrigation level. The highest N, P and K percentages were obtained by applying the interaction treatment of 100% FC and 4 ml L-1 AA treatment in both cuts (Table 4).
Chlorophyll loss is a negative consequence of deficit irrigation; however, it has been considered as an adaptive feature in plants grown under water deficit (Munne-Bosch and Alegre, 1999). In addition, the negative effect of deficit irrigation on the growth was reflected in decreasing the chlorophyll content of rosemary leaves. On the other hand, some authors found an opposite trend since chlorophyll increased by deficit irrigation. Khayatnezhad et al., (2011) and Alaei (2011) reported that drought stress condition increased the leaf chlorophyll content in wheat genotypes. This is because the exact effect of deficit irrigation may vary according to the intensity of the water stress imposed (Cameron et al., 1999). The carbohydrate percentage was positively correlated with deficit irrigation and this may be the reason of improving the volatile oil percentage of rosemary as our data showed.
These results support the findings of Diaz-Lopez et al. (2012) on Jatropha curcas seedlings.
Table 4: Combined effects of different water regimes and amino acids application on chemical composition
Carbohydrates as the main organic solutes involved in plant osmotic adjustment may leads to a decrease in leaf osmotic potential to maintain turgor and this is also an important adaptive mechanism in plants subjected to deficit irrigation (Hessine et al., 2012). Deficit irrigation had a negative effect on NPK of rosemary plant. As a result of vegetative growth reduction, the absorption of nutrient elements could be decreased (Pascale et al., 2001). These results support others concerning the growth reduction obtained in our study at deficit irrigation because that effect may be resulted from deficiency of nutrients, as our results shown, and that high irrigation level could compensate for nutrient deficiency (Silber et al., 2003). So, our results obtained here explain each other.
Our data show the positive effect of AA on the chemical constituents of rosemary herb. Foliar application of AA increased the chlorophyll content, carbohydrate and NPK percentages in leaves. AA significantly increased the total soluble sugars and total photosynthetic pigment content in leaves (Amin et al., 2011). In the same direction, AA treatment increased photosynthetic pigments, total sugar, N, P and K content of leaves and green yield compared to control (Abo Sedera et al., 2010;
Shehata et al., 2011; Khan et al., 2012). It is very important here to refer that AA gave an advantage to the plants under water deficit and decreased the negative effect of water stress. AA application could eliminate the deleterious effects of deficit irrigation as shown in our results concerning growth and yield of rosemary. These findings have been previously unreported. It appears that AA may be used to alleviate the negative effects of water stress in rosemary cultivation in the case of water shortage. In spite of these results, further research is required to investigate more sever deficit irrigation and its relation to antioxidant enzyme activity and to ascertain how it be regulated in different medicinal and aromatic plants.
Finally, it could be concluded that deficit irrigation, as a possible technique for saving water, may improve water relations by reducing water consumption and can be used to control growth,
increase volatile oil ratio and save water in rosemary cultivation. In addition, foliar application of AA is very important to achieve the previous goals especially under deficit irrigation conditions.
Acknowledgements
This study has been supported by Taif University, KSA project No. 1-433-2054 and it is appreciated.
The authors are grateful to the Agency of Taif University for graduate studies and scientific research.
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ISSN 1450-216X / 1450-202X Vol. 101 No 3 May, 2013, pp.360-371 http://www.europeanjournalofscientificresearch.com