Abstract
Sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua L.) is a highly valued crop, native to China, whose active ingredient “artemisinin” and its derivatives: artemether and artesunate, are used to prepare anti-malaria drugs. In Zimbabwe, very little has been done on improving agronomic practices that can enhance the yield of this crop. As a result, herbal gardens in Zimbabwe producing this sweet aromatic herb are realizing low leaf biomass. The objective of this study was to determine the effects of varying nitrogen fertilizer levels on growth and yield of Artemisia annua. A randomized complete block design (RCBD) was used and replicated four times. The fertilizer treatments consisted of 0, 40 kg N/ha, 80 kg N/ha, 120 kg N/ha, 160 kg N/ha and were applied as a top dress four weeks after planting. Applying 80 kg N/ha, 120 kg N/ha or 160 kg N/ha resulted in the best performance of Artemisia annua with respect to the plant height, root dry weight, stem dry weight and leaf biomass. Low N level (40 kg N/ha) recorded significantly low means in plant height, root weight, stem weight and leaf biomass. The results suggest that 80 kg N/ha should be recommended for use by Artemisia annua farmers, since there was no significant different among the three higher fertilizer levels. However there is need for further research to determine different fertilizer use efficient to come up with accurate agronomic data package for Zimbabwean farmers.
Highlights
The results suggest that 80 kg N/ha should be recommended for use by Artemisia annua farmers, since there was no significant different among the three higher fertilizer levels
There was no significant difference among treatments during the third and fourth weeks on plant height due to different nitrogen fertilizer rates (P > 0.05) (Table 2)
At week 5 there were no statistical differences between treatments with 0 and 40 kg N/ha which gave the lowest plant heights of 23.77 cm and 25.47 cm respectively
Summary
The genus Artemisia belongs to the Compositae family which includes well-known plants used in medicine, perfumery and the food and drink industry [4] [5]. It is cultivated globally as the only source of a potent anti-malarial drug, artemisinin [6] [7] [8]. Malaria is a devastating global health crisis, with an estimated 300 million people succumbing to infection by the malaria parasite annually [9]. A greater majority of cases have been reported in sub-Saharan Africa, with between 500,000 and 2.5 million people dying each year from the disease and children represent a larger fraction of the victims [10]
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