Abstract
Poejo is an aromatic and medicinal plant native to highland areas of south Brazil, in acid soils with high Al3+ concentration. The main objective of the present work was to evaluate the effect of liming on the extraction yield of essential oil of three chemotypes of poejo (Cunila galioides Benth). For this purpose, the experiments were performed in a greenhouse, using 8-litre pots. The treatments were four dosages of limestone (0, 3.15, 12.5, and 25 g.L(-1)) and a completely random experimental design was used, with four replications and three chemotypes, set up in a 3 × 4 factorial arrangement. The parameters evaluated were dry weight of aerial parts, essential oil content and chemical composition of essential oil. Results showed that liming affects the biomass production, essential oil yield and chemical composition, with cross interaction verified between chemotype and limestone dosage. For the higher dosage lower biomass production, lower yield of essential oil as well as the lowest content of citral (citral chemotype) and limonene (menthene chemotype) was observed. In the ocimene chemotype, no liming influence was observed on the essential oil yield and on the content of major compounds. The dosage of 3.15 g.L(-1) can be considered the best limestone dosage for the production of poejo for the experimental conditions evaluated.
Highlights
Poejo (Cunila galioides Benth.) is an aromatic and medicinal plant belonging to Lamiaceae family (Simões et al, 1998)
At the end of the experiment, the substrate that was not submitted to liming showed the greatest reduction in pH (4.08 ± 0.2). This fact might be explained in terms of the greater NH4+ absorption which occurs in several acid soils, where nitrification is normally inhibited, leading to acidification of substrate due to variations in the liberation of H+ or OH, related to total ion balance absorbed, mainly in nitrogen form (Bracinni et al, 2000)
Results obtained in this work demonstrated that liming affected significantly the biomass production for the populations studied, with the dosage of 3.15 g.L–1 leading to the greatest values of dry aerial matter
Summary
Poejo (Cunila galioides Benth.) is an aromatic and medicinal plant belonging to Lamiaceae family (Simões et al, 1998). It comprises one of the 12 autochthonous species of South America, naturally found in highland areas of south Brazil in acid soils with high Al3+ concentration. Medicinal and aromatic properties of poejo as well as the relatively good essential oil yields obtained, suggest the possibility of using this plant in large scale processing. For this purpose, it seems necessary the use of phytotechnical studies toward increasing the essential oil yield without affecting the properties of the product obtained. According to Freitas et al (2004), the biosynthesis of secondary metabolites in aromatic and medicinal plants depends on genetic, physiological and environmental factors, which makes relevant the determination of real factors that affect the concentration of bioactive compounds so as to establish its aromatic quality or therapeutical efficiency
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