Abstract
The nanotechnology is a relatively new technology that has recently entered the field of agriculture. Nanotechnology covers the integration or manipulation of individual atoms, molecules or molecular masses to a diverse array of structures allowing the production of new characteristics and traits of interest. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of foliar application of TiO2 nanoparticles on quantitative traits (plant height, number of branches, dry weight of shoots and roots) and the essential oil content of thyme under different levels of field capacity. Our results showed that the application of TiO2 nanoparticles had significant effects on thyme growth, while the essential oil concentrations not affected. These results imply that the application of TiO2 nanoparticles in plants increase agronomic value under reduced irrigation conditions but has not different significant on essential oil.
Highlights
Health concerns have been one of the main drivers increasing the knowledge and use of medicinal plants worldwide in folk medicine since prehistorically times (Trebichalský et al, 2015; Fazeli-Nasab and Mirzaei. 2018)
In this study we evaluated the effects of titanium dioxide nanoparticles (TiO2 nanoparticles) on growth features and the amount of essential oil in the medicinal plant thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.) under drought stress conditions
Overall, reduced irrigation significantly decreased plant height, number of branches, fresh and dry weight of the aerial part and roots in thyme plants and the lowest of them were observed in plants under a 50% field capacity
Summary
Health concerns have been one of the main drivers increasing the knowledge and use of medicinal plants worldwide in folk medicine since prehistorically times (Trebichalský et al, 2015; Fazeli-Nasab and Mirzaei. 2018). The social perceptions that herbal medicines have fewer negative collateral effects on human health and reduce more concerns towards their use than artificial drugs have been installed in the human minds of modern societies (Alizadeh-Salteh et al, 2010; Omidbeigi, 2002). Medicinal plants usually need full vegetative and reproductive growth to produce enough yields of active compounds (Eftimova et al, 2018). These requirements may be critical in arid and semi-arid regions, where limited water resources for agriculture cause drought stress which can lead to reduction in the quantity and quality of the desired plant components (Khodadadi Dehkordi, 2016a; Khodadadi Dehkordi, 2016b)
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