Intraspecific responses of medicinal plants: Genotype-environment interaction may alter drug quality of aromatic plants

Abstract

An open field experiment was established in 2014 in Budapest (BP) and Poznań (PZ), which are characterized by different soil and weather conditions. The purpose was to study the intraspecific responses of Melissa officinalis L. (lemon balm -Lb) and Thymus vulgaris (thyme -T) to varying locations. Five accessions of lemon balm (‘Lorelei’, ‘Lemona’, ‘Soroksár’, ‘Quedlinburger Niederliegende’, ‘Gold Leaf’) and four of thyme (‘Sloneczko’, French Summer’, ‘Varico 3′, ‘Standard Winter’) were tested for yield and chemical characteristics.Biomass of both species was significantly higher in PZ, than in BP (291 and 107 g/plant for Lb and 105 and 53 g/plant for T in PZ and BP, respectively). In Lb, the environmental circumstances of the actual vegetation period of BP location were more favourable for the accumulation of volatiles (+76%), while the level of phenolic compounds was higher in PZ (up to +53% for rosmarinic acid). In T, each chemical parameter increased (up to +27% both for volatiles and total flavonoid content) in PZ, where lower temperatures and less precipitation prevailed.In most traits a significant interaction of genotype and growing location was established, which was more characteristic in T. The results show that breeding of specific cultivars for a given location might be of primary importance.