Portulaca oleracea L. is a medicinal plant belonging to Portulacaceae family, which exhibited a wide scope of pharmaceutical properties such as pain killer, antipyretic, anti-viral and anti-fungal. The aim of the present study was evaluation of morphological diversity 18 populations of P. oleracea. The seeds of 18 populations were cultivated based on a completely randomized design with three replicates in the research farm of Medicinal Plants Research Center, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran. The morphological traits, chlorophyll and protein contents were measured in the vegetative stage. The analysis of variance showed that there was a significant difference among populations of P. oleracea in terms of the most studied morphological and biochemical traits. The highest shoot dry weight (84.84±12.70 g per plant) belonged to the Zanjan population, while the lowest shoot dry weight (18.89±1.72 g per plant) belonged to the population of Lourdgan. The correlation between most of the studied traits was positively significant. The cluster analysis of the 18 P. oleracea populations based on morphological and biochemical traits produced three main clusters. Overall, the outcomes of the present study were indicated the presence of high genetic variability among the P. oleracea populations. Our findings suggested that collection of the plants from different regions can be used for hybridization to generate useful recombinants in the segregating generations and improve breeding varieties of P. oleracea and can be utilized for preservation and maintenance the germplasm of this medicinal plant.

The Dracocephalum kotschyi Boiss.is a wild-growing flowering plant belonging to the Lamiaceae family and has been used as a medicinal herb for rheumatoid diseases, headaches, congestion, stomach disorders, liver treatment. In order to study the effects of dryland farming system on some agronomical and physiological traits of D. kotschyi, two separate experiments were conducted in three locations of, Mashad (Golmakan station), Quchan (5km in the northeast of city) and Bojnord (Sisab station) under normal irrigation and dryland farming systems in 2018. The collected data were combined analysis over three locations and mean comparisons were made using Tukey method. The results showed significant effects of locations for all of the traits except carbohydrate contents. Effect of farming system was also significant for all traits. Farming system by location interaction effects were significant for aerial fresh and dry weigh, 1000 seeds weight, proline, DPPH, flavonoid, protein, chlorophyll a, carotenoid, nitrogen and potassium. Result showed the location of Quchan had significantly higher mean values for many of traits followed by Mashad. In comparisons between two method of cultivations, the lower and higher values of plant height (20.6 vs. 25.3 cm), main branch (13.1 vs. 14.9 per plant), leaf area (38.9 vs. 48.3 mm2), flower number (14.6 vs. 23.1 per plant), fresh weight (295 vs. 888 g/plant), dry weight (80 vs. 244 g/plant), 1000 seeds weight (0.27 vs. 0.35 g), Protein (9.74 vs. 11.06%), chlorophyll a (7.47 vs. 8.19 mg g-1FW), carotenoid (0.08 vs. 0.11 mg g-1FW), nitrogen (1.43 vs. 1.77%) and phosphorus (13.89 vs. 20.79 ppm) were obtained in dryland and irrigation farming, respectively. In contrast, the higher and lower values of internode length (4.11 vs. 3.71 cm), proline (1.44 vs. 0.77 mg g-1FW), DPPH (0.39 vs. 0.19 mg g-1FW), phenol (0.83 vs. 0.67 mg g-1FW), flavonoid (0.60 vs. 0.47 mg g-1FW), carbohydrate (8.2 vs. 6.2 mg g-1FW), and potassium (4.2 vs. 3.7%) were obtained in dryland farming system.

In order to reduce dependence of Iranian economy on crude oil exports and shift to a multipurpose export economy, export policy orientations should be changed to the benefit of exporting non-oil goods, including agricultural exports. Share of the agricultural sector in non-oil exports to Iran shows that this trend is declining. Therefore, attention should be paid to the expansion of this sector's exports. Statistics and time series of the past years shows that despite Iran's good rank in the production and cultivation level of medicinal plants, the export status of these products is not in a good position. Among the agricultural products, medicinal plants are one of the most important agricultural export items in Iran which play a great role in creating added value for the agricultural sector. The purpose of this study is to investigate the role of marketing strategies on export of Iranian medicinal plants. Necessary data were collected from 30 herbal exporting companies for 2011 – 2017, using simple random sampling. Due to the combined nature of the data collected and the export impact of its amount in previous years, the dynamic panel model was chosen as the superior model. On the other hand, this study attempts to identify the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities for export of medicinal plants. The results showed that differentiation strategies, market development and product development have positive and significant impact on export performance of exporting companies. Market penetration strategy, although not statistically significant, also varies with the export value of medicinal plants.

This research was conducted to study of the essential oil content, some morphological parameters, crop evapotranspiration (ETc) and crop coefficient (Kc) of Summer Savory (Satureja hortensis L.) in the west of Iran (Khorramabad region) in 2017. Weighing Lysimeters (25 cm diameter and 30 cm height) were used to measure important morphological parameters, the evapotranspiration of grass (ET0) and Summer Savory (ETc.) for the first time (Three lysimeters for each plant that was considered as replication). Irrigation was performed by the weighing method. The results showed that the essential oil content was 1.083%(w/w), and the average of plant height, stem diameters, root length, root diameter, number of leaf per plant, leaf and flower dry weight, stem dry weight were 47cm, 3.13mm, 14.5cm, 2.26mm, 630.7, 0.866 g/plant, 0.890 g/plant, respectively. Crop coefficient (Kc) can be used in predicting exact water requirement of crops. The result indicated that seasonal ET0and ETcwere884.26 mm and 776.64mm. The best polynomial curve for Kc values as a function of the days after planting (DAP) was a third polynomial (). Likewise, the growth-stage-specific crop coefficient, based on FAO approach (FAO-56 Kc) was 0.45, 0.78and 1.3. Development of the regional Kc helps in irrigation management and water resources protection.

Chamomile (Anthemis haussknechtii Boiss. & Reut. and Anthemis pseudocotula Boiss.) are annual, medicinal and aromatic plant belong to Asteraceae family. This two species have special important in pharmaceutical and cosmetic industries. Current study was carried out to investigation of different pre-treatments for enhancement of seed emergence potential, rate of emergence and vigor in some populations of Anthemis haussknechtii and Anthemis pseudocotula For this purpose, a factorial experiment was conducted based on randomized complete design with three replications. The first were six populations and the second factor were six pre-treatments levels including osmopriming (0.5% and 1% of potassium nitrate (KNO3)), hormon priming (125 ppm and 250 ppm of gibberellic acid (GA3)), hydropriming (as control with distilled water) and moist chilling (4 °C) in greenhouse conditions. The results showed significant differences between population, treatment and their interactions (p<0.01). Priming improved means of manty traits in some populations. In comparing between populations, 19320-Zanjan population had higher seed emergence characteristics higher than the other five populations. It was concluded that giberellic acid and potassium nitrate had higher effects on emergence characteristics than moist chilling and control. It was concluded that hormonal priming and osmopriming as physiological treatment, enhanced seed emergence characteristics and seedling vigor in some populations of Anthemis in greenhouse conditions.

The effect of four different levels of irrigation periods, including normal irrigation, irrigation after 100, 150, and 200mm evaporation, with three different bio-fertilizer including control, Mycorrhiza, and Rhizobium were investigated on morphological and yield traits of guar. The experiment was conduct in form of split-plot design with irrigation periods as main plots and bio-fertilizers as sub-plots with three replications in research farm of Sarayan agricultural college-University of Birjand in2016.The results of analysis of variance showed significant effect of investigated irrigation periods on plant height, wilting, root length, pod length, number of pods per plant, grain yield, and biological yield at 1% probability level, and on chlorophyll content, height of the first branch, stem diameter, number of secondary branch, number of seeds per pod, and harvest index at 5% probability level. The interaction effect of drought stress×bio-fertilizers of bio-fertilizers was significant on wilting at 1% probability level and on chlorophyll and pod length at 5% probability level. The results of means comparison analysis revealed that the highest mean of wilting was achieved in severe drought stress induction in control, and application of both Mycorrhiza, and Rhizobium bio-fertilizers. Increasing levels of drought stress led to significant reduction in grain yield and harvest index of guar. Application of Mycorrhiza, and Rhizobium bio-fertilizers did not show significant effect on yield traits of guar under drought stress condition; however the protein percentage of guar’s seeds was increased in moderate drought stress and inoculation with Rhizobium. Based on the results of simple correlation analysis biological yield and harvest index had the highest positive and significant correlation with grain yield of guar and can used as selection criteria under drought stress condition.

The present study was conducted in order to investigate the effect of salicylic acid on growth, yield and macro-elements absorption of fennel in split-plot as base on randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications in Tehran, Iran. Irrigation regime as main plot was undergone in 5 levels that included: I1: full irrigation, I2: cut off irrigation at stem elongation stage, I3: cut off at budding stage, I4: cut off irrigation at 50% flowering stage and I5: cut off irrigation at grain filling stage. Foliar application of SA (0, 3, 6, and 8 mM) as sub plot was applied at stem elongation, budding and 50% flowering stages. Result indicated application of SA was resulted to increase biological yield in all irrigation regimes. However, application of 6 mM SA had the most biomass under water stress at grain filling stage. Interaction of water stress and SA demonstrated that application of 3 mM SA had the most grain yield under full irrigation, water stress at stemming and water stress at grain filling stages, while application of 9 mM SA had the highest grain yield under water stress at budding and 50% flowering stages.

The present study was conducted to investigate genetic diversity between and within of six populations with different individual numbers of cultivated and non-cultivated provenances of Moringa peregrina (Forssk.) Fiori and Moringa oleifera Lam. using RAPD, ISSR and various combinations of RAPD and ISSR primers in one multiplex PCR (R-ISSR). 10 primers that produced clear and reproducible fragments after screening of 30 primers were selected for further analysis. A set of 10 primers generated 96 bands ranging in size from 150 to 1600 bp, corresponding to an average of 16 bands per primer and out of which 100 % were polymorphic among 26 individuals. The PIC values ranged from 0.16 to 0.31 and MI values ranged from 2.16 to 4.65 per primer. The primer R-ISSR (H876+A17) had the highest PIC (0.31) and MI (4.65) values. A maximum and minimum genetic similarity values were observed between populations (I and V) in M. oleifera (0.98) and populations (III and IV) in M. peregrina (0.52) respectively. The Gst value was 0.7, indicating that 61% of the genetic diversity resided within the populations. Clustering analysis using average algorithm based on Nei's unbiased genetic distance, classified the Moringa Adans. populations into five major groups. The PCOA data confirmed the results of clustering. The results of this study revealed that R-ISSR markers could be efficiently used for genetic differentiation of the Moringa individuals. The primers used in this article are useful to detection of a high level of polymorphism and it can be used to guide future breeding studies and management of Moringa genus.

Kelussia odoratissima Mozaff. belonging to the Apiaceae family, is well known for its medicinal and nutritional importance, endemic to Iran. Seed dormancy is a major problem present in Kelussia odoratissima leading to low germination percentage; thus, improvement of seed germination and breaking seed dormancy is important. Piriformospora indica, a root-colonizing endophytic fungus, promotes plant growth, development and resistance to biotic and abiotic stresses. In order to evaluate the effects of different treatments of P. indica on seed germination traits of Kelussia odoratissima, an experiment was conducted based on completely randomized design with five treatments and three replications. The experimental treatments were application of fungal mycelium of P. indica (M), spore suspension of P. indica (S), the combination of Gibberellic acid and fungal mycelium (H+M), the combination of Gibberellic acid and spore suspension (H+S), and control (C). Based on the results the highest percentage of germination (75%) and the highest germination rate was related to spore suspension of P. indica. The lowest amount of germination uniformity (GU) observed in spore suspension of P. indica treatment. Among the different treatments, application of P. indica spore suspension resulted in lowest times for 10% germination (D10) and 90% germination (D90). The highest plumule and radicle length observed in spore treatment and in comparison with control, application of spore suspension of P. indica increasedplumule and radicle length by 16% and 32%, respectively. Based on the current results, it seems that spore suspension of P. indica was the best treatment for improvement of seed germination traits.

Purslane(Portulaca oleracea L.) is a local plant in Iran that can easily breed. Chromium is a heavy metal that causes toxicity for the growth and development of plants. To study the effects of potassium dichromate on growth, efficiency of photosystem II (Fv/Fm), cell membrane stability index (MSI), indexes of oxidative stress and antioxidant properties of purslane, an experiment was done in a completely randomized design of five levels (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100 ppm Cr per kg of soil) in a greenhouse condition. After 60 days, the effect of different levels of chromium on growth parameters, Fv/Fm, MSI, total phenolic compound, flavonoid, H2O2 and malondialdehyde content and antioxidants enzymatic activity (catalase, peroxidese and ascorbate peroxidase) was assayed. Along With increasing concentrations of chromium, the malondialdehyde (MDA) and H2O2 was increased, and followed by the enzymatic and nonenzymatic antioxidant compounds (except APX) was increased to compensate the effect of oxidant compounds. But, Heavy metal negatively affected growth parameters such as dry weight and length of root and shoot, Fv/Fm and MSI in contaminated plants. Therefore, the destructive effects due to chromium stress with increases the activity of enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidant system was minimized. It was noted that accumulation of chromium in the roots was higher than the shoots of the plants under treatment, significantly. Based on these results, purslane can be introduced as a good candidate for tolerance to chromium.