Abstract
The medicinal and aromatic plants in Egypt became vital economic crops for the local and export market. One of these crops is the Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.), it is an important herbaceous plant. The fennel aphids, Hyadaphis foeniculi (Passerini) and cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae (Linnaeus) cause reductions on the yield components and amount of essential oil in the fennel fruits. This study was conducted to investigate the aphids infestation on two fennel varieties (Foeniculum vulgare var. vulgare (Local) and Foeniculum vulgare var. azoricum (Holland) cultivated in two agro-ecological zones in Middle and Upper Egypt during 2016/2017 and 2017/2018. Depend on the obtained results, there were significant effects of different locations on the infestation level by fennel aphids, while there was no significant interaction between seasons. This results on susceptibility degrees of fennel varieties showed that none of the tested varieties was found completely free from aphid attack. At Al-Fayoum, the Local and Holland were exhibited low resistance in the first season, whereas, both varieties were susceptible (S) in the second season. However, at Luxor, Local var. was low resistance (LR) and susceptible (S) in the first and second seasons respectively. While Holland var. was susceptible (S) in both seasons. The different treatments were similar in both seasons and highly significant compared to untreated plants. The efficient treatments are Tracer and Saif oil followed by KZ Oil + Potassium Soap. It is clear from the results that the local cultivar preferred to cultivate in Luxor, where the best vegetative growth, as well as the highest yield of fruits and the highest productivity of essential oil percentage and the highest oil yield, provided the treatment of plants with Tracer or Saif oil, where they have a strong impact on aphid resistance, which reflected on the production of local fennel type increased. On the other hand, Holland variety, the best yield was given in Al-Fayoum in terms of vegetative growth, fruit yield and oil yield, provided that the plants were treated with Tracer or Saif oil, which was efficient on the reduction the aphid infestation, leading to increased productivity. Our investigation suggested that the agro-ecological region have a high concern in widespread of the medicinal and aromatic plant for high production and quality of the essential oil especially the foreign fennel verities.
Highlights
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) belongs to the family of Apiaceae, an annual and biennial herbaceous plant, depending on the variety
The obtained results indicated that the most aphid infestation was with Hyadaphis foeniculi and Brevicoryne brassicae
Figure (3) illustrated that the population densities of fennel aphid have varied on two varieties at Al-Fayoum governorate, the fennel plants were infested with aphids from 35 to 165 days after planting
Summary
Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill.) belongs to the family of Apiaceae, an annual and biennial herbaceous plant, depending on the variety. There are two types of oils that are commercially available, the first type is bitter fennel oil from cultivated Foeniculum vulgare Mill. Vulgare and the second one is sweet fennel Foeniculum vulgare subsp. The essential oils are concentrated in the biomasses and mainly in fruits. The seed of fennel contains 9.5% protein, 10.0 % fat, 18.5 % crude fibre, 42.3 % carbohydrates, and 13.4 % minerals and rich in vitamins and volatile oil (Ana Clara., et al, 2010 ). Fennel is known for the use of its fruits and its essential oil in the manufacture of perfumes, toothpaste, soaps, and herbal medicine
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