Урожайность семян и качество масла Guizotia abyssinica в условиях центральной степи Крыма

Abstract

Guizotia abyssinica or niger is an oilseed crop that belongs to the family of Asteraceae, which is cultivated in Ethiopia and India. This crop is environmentally modifiable and does not greatly depend on soil and climatic conditions. The aforementioned peculiarities, as well as the achievements of Russian breeders, inspired scientists to study Guizotia abyssinica in various regions of the country. The aim of the research was to assess the possibility of cultivating Guizotia abyssinica for seeds in the central steppe of the Crimea. Field trials were conducted in 2019–2020 on the experimental fields of the Department of Introductions and Technologies in Agriculture and Livestock Farming of the FSBSI “Research Institute of Agriculture of Crimea” (village of Klepinino, Krasnogvardeysky district). Guizotia abyssinica variety ‘Medeya’ (originator – FSBSI “Federal Research Center of Fibre Crops”) served as plant material for this research. The experimental design included the following options: planting dates (factor A) - second decade of March, third decade of March, first decade of April; seeding rates (factor B) – 1.0; 1.5; 2.0; 2.5; 3.0 million seeds per hectare. In the course of the research, we found that the niger crop growing season length varies from 135 to 161 days under conditions of the central steppe of the Crimea. Nevertheless, this figure can be considered arbitrary since frequent summer showers in the Crimea lead to the appearance of new inflorescences and lengthen the growing season. It should be noted that one of the disadvantages of this crop is shattering. The highest seed yield (4.0 centners per hectare) was obtained in 2019, which was more favorable in moisture supply (sowing date – mid March/late March; seed rate – 2.0–2.5 million seeds/ha). In 2020, Guizotia abyssinica seed yield was even lower and varied from 0.5 to 0.8 cwt/ha depending on the variant of the experiment. The niger seeds oil content, depending on the sowing date, was 34.8–36.2 % in 2019 and 35.9–38.0 % in 2020. It has been established that sowing at a later date causes a decrease in oil content. We identified 11 fatty acids in the niger oil with linoleic (С 18:2) – 61.0–70.3 %; oleic (С18:1) – 13.8–19.9 %; palmitic (С16:0) – 7.3–8.8 %; stearic (С18:0) – 6,3–8,2 % acids being the dominant ones. Thus, for two years of research in the Central Steppe of the Crimea, Guizotia abyssinica has established itself as an unproductive crop that forms valuable oilseeds with an oil content of up to 38.0 %.