Abstract
Mentha spicata L. is an aromatic and medicinal plant, known as mint and used in the pharmaceutical and cosmetic industry and in phytotherapy. Although the cultivation of medicinal plants is traditional, there are several questions about which practices are most appropriate in the management of these plants, especially regarding nutrition and availability of light. The objective of this work was to evaluate the growth, phytomass production and physiological aspects of M. spicata cultivated in proportions of nitrate (NO3-) and ammonium (NH4+) and light environments. The research was carried out in a greenhouse at the Universidade Federal do Recôncavo da Bahia, Cruz das Almas, BA, Brazil. The experimental design used was completely randomized, in a 5 x 3 factorial scheme, with five proportions of NO3-:NH4+ (0: 100; 25:75; 50:50; 75:25; 100: 0) and three light environments (ChromatiNet® meshes red, black and in full sun), with seven repetitions. There was a significant interaction between the proportions of ammonium and nitrate with the light environments for most of the evaluated parameters. It is concluded that M. spicata plants grown under balanced proportions of nitrate and ammonium in a light environment favorably favored the initial growth and physiological indications of this species.
Highlights
It was verified from the summary of the analysis of variance (Table 2), that there was no significant effect for NO3-:NH4+ and light environment interactions on the chlorophyll b index, chlorophyll a/b ratio, and leaf area
In the other parameters evaluated, there was a significant effect of the mutual influence of these factors (p ≤ 0.05), demonstrating that the species M. spicata responds to the different relationships between NO3- and NH4+ ions in different light environments
Plants of M. spicata grown in shaded environments showed higher leaf number (NL) compared to those grown in full sun (Table 3)
Summary
Among the species of aromatic, medicinal and condiment plants belonging to the Lamiaceae family, Mentha spicata L., known in several regions of Brazil as mint or mint, is a medicinal herb of economic relevance due to menthol, generally the major constituent of its essential oil, and is cultivated in several regions of the world (Bahadori et al, 2018).Due to the active ingredients in the essential oil of M. spicata, the leaves are used in herbal medicine, mainly to relieve stomach problems, nasal congestion, diseases of the uterus and ovaries, muscle spasms, prevent flatulence, Alzheimer’s, liver diseases, as well as having antiseptic properties (Pinha et al, 2019).Knowing the phytotherapeutic importance of this species, it is essential to know the factors that condition its growth and development, because these do not depend only on the genetic potential of the species, and on several factors that act together, among them: light, humidity, irrigation, soil fertility, and others.Light is paramount for plant growth by providing energy for the photosynthetic process, and by generating signals that regulate their development. Modifications in light levels, to which a species is adapted, can condition different physiological responses in their biochemical, nutritional and growth characteristics, because these do not depend only on the presence, attenuation or absence of light, and on the spectral quality of the radiation (Taiz et al, 2017). In this sense, the use of photoconverter meshes becomes a technological innovation that can contribute to plant development, as they select spectral bands of solar radiation in order to combine physical protection with spectral light quality
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