~ 111 ~ Journal of Medicinal Plants Studies 2016; 4(1): 111-117 ISSN 2320-3862 JMPS 2016; 4(1): 111-117 © 2016 JMPS Received: 27-11-2015 Accepted: 30-11-2015 Eirini Sarrou Hellenic Agricultural Organization “Demeter”, Institute of Breeding and Plant Genetic Resources, Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Thermi 57001, Thessaloniki, Greece Paschalina Chatzopoulou Hellenic Agricultural Organization “Demeter”, Institute of Breeding and Plant Genetic Resources, Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Thermi 57001, Thessaloniki, Greece Theodoros Koutsos V Hellenic Agricultural Organization “Demeter”, Institute of Breeding and Plant Genetic Resources, Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Thermi 57001, Thessaloniki, Greece Stavros Katsiotis Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, School of Pharmacy, Department of Pharmaceutics, Thessaloniki, Greece, 54124 Correspondence Eirini Sarrou Hellenic Agricultural Organization “Demeter”, Institute of Breeding and Plant Genetic Resources, Department of Medicinal and Aromatic Plants, Thermi 57001, Thessaloniki, Greece, esarroy@gmail.com Herbage yield and essential oil composition of sweet basil ( Ocimum basilicum L.) under the influence of different mulching materials and fertilizers Eirini Sarrou, Paschalina Chatzopoulou, Theodoros Koutsos V, Stavros Katsiotis Abstract Field experiment was conducted in order to evaluate the effect of synthetic and organic mulching on weed control, biomass production and essential oil yield of sweet basil (Ocinum basilicum L.). Moreover, the effect of fertilizers containing different forms of nitrogen on sweet basil essential oils and herbage yield was also examined. The applied fertilization (one inorganic and four organic), affected significantly the herbage yield compared to the control. Namely, the treatments of organic Agrobiosol (O-A) and Neem-cake (O-NK) increased the herbage yield by 33 and 47.75%, respectively. The essential oil content ranged between 1.06-1.27% and 0.88-1.36% under mulching and fertilizing treatments, respectively, with main constituents: linalool, 1.8 cineol, 4 terpineol, α-bergamotene and t-cadinene. Moreover significant quantitative differences in basil volatile constituents were observed under the influence of different types of fertilizers. The components 1, 8 cineol, α-bergamotene and t-cadinol were mostly affected by organic fertilization (O-L). Keywords: sweet basil, fertilization, mulching, essential oil, linalool Introduction The genus Ocimum of the Lamiaceae family comprises about 30 species, known as basil, occurring mainly in tropical and subtropical regions (Paton, 1992). It is an annual crop cultivated extensively in the United States, France, Egypt, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Morocco etc. It is cultivated as a culinary herb, ornamental, spice or condiment and its essential oil is used for flavoring foods, in perfumery as well as in pharmacy (Simon, 1999) [41] . Basil essential oil has antioxidant (Lee et al., 2005) [19] , antimicrobial (Koba et al., 2008) [17] , antifungal and insect repelling properties (Dube et al., 1989) [9] . Different basil varieties, cultivars and chemotypes are globally traded, and they are mostly known by their origin. Depending on the chemotype, the essential oil is characterized by high concentration of linalool, methylchavicol, methylcinnamate or eugenol respectively (Grayer et al., 1996; Vieira and Simon, 2006) [12, 46] . The essential oil accumulation and composition is affected by different factors such as genetic, environmental conditions, agronomic techniques (irrigation, fertilization, time of harvesting) etc. (Marotti et al., 1996) [22] . Nowadays, there is an increasing consumers’ demand for organic MAPs products (Craker, 1997) [8] . Organic cultivation of MAPs adds to their quality, which is associated to their essential oil content or other secondary metabolites. Weed management is of major importance for MAPs crops, especially those under organic farming, where the use of synthetic herbicides is prohibited (Carruba et al., 2007) [7] . Several practices, alternative to chemicals, have been utilized for weed control, in many crops, but they have been limited applied in MAPs organic cultivation. Mulching with synthetic or organic materials is a common technique for increasing profitability of many crops (Palada et al., 2008; Najafabadi et al., 2012) [25] . Mulching effectiveness is attributed to its ability to increase soil moisture, temperature, insect repellence, efficient utilization of soil nutrients, reduce weed growth and stimulate higher crop yield (Ricotta and Masiounas, 1991; Budnik et al., 1999; Kashi et al., 2004) [36, 16] . Moreover, a reduced competition for light due to weed absence has resulted in low density of trips, aphides and flies that causes damage in cultivations (Ricotta and Masiounas, 1991) [36] . Different materials may be used for mulching, including crop residues and organic mulches, various plastic materials, paper mulches, biodegradable films etc. (Haapala et al., 2014) [13] . The efficiency of mulching is dependent on the crop species, the cultivation practices etc. Genetics and other factors such as climate, harvest time and the use of fertilizer affect the essential oil content and composition in medicinal and aromatic plants (Dudai, 1992; Nurzyńska-Wierdak, 2013) [10, 26] .