Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Mahdi Ebrahimi ¹
• Mohsen Pouyan ²
• Mohammad Ali Behdani ³
• Sareh Hosseini ⁴
• Tayebeh Shahi ⁵
• Hosein Ragh Ara ⁶
• hossein sahabi ⁷

¹ Assistant Professor, Optimizing the Production and Processing of Indigenous Medicinal Plants in South Khorasan Department, ACECR of Southern Khorasan Province, Birjand, Iran

² MSc. of plant biology, Medicinal Plants Research Complex, ACECR of Southern Khorasan Province, Birjand, Iran

³ Professor, Department of Saffron Research, University of Birjand, Birjand. Iran

⁴ Ph.D. candidate of food industry, Optimizing the Production and Processing of Indigenous Medicinal Plants in South Khorasan Department, ACECR of Southern Khorasan Province, Birjand, Iran

⁵ Ph.D. of food industry, Medicinal Optimizing the Production and Processing of Indigenous Medicinal Plants in South Khorasan Department, ACECR of Southern Khorasan Province, Birjand, Iran.

⁶ MSc. of agronomy, Optimizing the Production and Processing of Indigenous Medicinal Plants in South Khorasan Department, ACECR of Southern Khorasan Province, Birjand, Iran

⁷ Assistant Professor, Department of Plant Production, Faculty of Agriculture. University of Torbat Heydarieh, Iran

Abstract

The research was conducted in split plots with a basic RCBD(Randomized Complete Block Design)over two consecutive years (2020-2021and2021-2022) at ACECR's research complex for medicinal plants.The experimental treatments consisted of two levels of drought stress (50% and 100% of saffron water requirement) and six levels of fertilizer (control, 100% NPK, 50% NPK, 50% NPK with three biofertilizers, 50% NPK with four biofertilizers, and three biofertilizers). Due to increased drought stress, the nitrogen levels in saffron leaves and corms rose, whereas the phosphorus content in the leaves decreased significantly.These findings suggest that heightened drought stress can result in reduced phosphorus levels in saffron leaves. potassium content in saffron leaves remained unchanged under drought stress, but significantly increased in corms. In general, saffron leaves accumulated significantly higher amounts of nitrogen, potassium, iron, and zinc compared to the corms except for phosphorus.Fertilizer treatments significantly affected the levels of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium in saffron leaves and stems, while iron and zinc levels remained unaffected. Since daughter corms store phosphorus effectively from chemical fertilizers and saffron yield depends on the amount of phosphorus in daughter corms, it is not advisable to completely replace chemical fertilizers with biological fertilizers.The level of potassium in saffron leaves and stems was not affected by the fertilizer treatments, suggesting that the application of fertilizer did not impact potassium absorption. while the level of safranal was higher in the first year.Additionally, it was observed that drought stress did not significantly impact the levels of any of the apocarotenoids examined in this study. The overall conclusion is that it is possible to enhance the quality of saffron and make up for nutrient deficiencies through the concurrent application of biological and chemical fertilizers in saffron farms even under drought.However further research is necessary to clarify the unknown aspects of this area.

Keywords

• apocarotenoid
• crocin
• phosphorus
• safranal
• water requirement