Field evaluation of algae-derived inputs for sustainable crop production in the medicinal plant fennel (Foeniculum vulgare)

Subject Areas : Medicinal Plants

Afsaneh Yousefpour Dokhanieh ¹ , elnaz farajzadeh memari ²

1 - Department of Horticultural Science, Tabriz Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tabriz, Iran
2 - دانشگاه ازاد ملکان

Received: 2025-05-10 Accepted : 2025-06-12 Published : 2025-09-21

Keywords: fennel (Foeniculum vulgare ) , algae, environmental conditions, essential oil performance,

Abstract :

Due to the medicinal properties of medicinal plants, the use of natural inputs is essential to enhance plant growth. Because chemical compounds can change the chemical composition of medicinal plant extracts and consequently their properties. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of investigating the effect of different seaweed inputs, whose positive effects have been proven in various studies. This experiment was conducted based on a randomized complete block design with three replications at the Malekan Branch of Islamic Azad University. The treatments included the application of polysaccharides from algae, humic acid from algae, an extract containing algae amino acids, and nutritional and vitamin compounds derived from brown algae (Ecklonia maxima). The results of this study showed that key traits of fennel, including leaf area, chlorophyll content, total dry weight, seed number, thousand seed weight, seed yield, and essential oil yield, were significantly affected by the different treatments. Leaf area increased by 32.6% and 35.1% in the first year with the application of nutrient composition + humic acid and polysaccharide + humic acid, respectively, and by 31.6% in the second year with the combined application of the three compositions. Chlorophyll content increased by 84.5% in the first year with the treatment of amino acid + polysaccharide + nutrient composition. Total dry weight increased by 29.6% and 47.7% in the first year with amino acid and amino acid + polysaccharide + nutrient composition, respectively, and by 43.8%, 30% and 34.2% in the second year with amino acid + nutrient composition, amino acid + polysaccharide and amino acid + polysaccharide + nutrient composition, respectively. Seed number increased by 11.5% with amino acid and by 41.3% with polysaccharide + nutrient composition. The 1000-seed weight with polysaccharide+nutritional composition was significantly reduced in both years (19.6% and 14.4%). Grain yield increased by 8.3% with amino acid and essential oil percentage. Essential oil increased by 25.4% and 29.1% with polysaccharide+nutritional composition and by 29.8% and 40.8% with nutritional composition. Essential oil yield improved by 22% with nutritional composition and 63% with humic acid+nutritional composition. The results show that environmental conditions and the compounds used can have different effects on yield and quality of the product. The use of nutritional composition and humic acid may be used in some environmental conditions as an effective method to increase the yield of fennel essential oil. These results show that different compounds and environmental conditions can have different effects on yield and quality of the product.

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