Effect of organic fertilizers on the morphophysiological characteristics of Ziziphora clinopodioides Lam

Nowadays, to have a sustainable agricultural system, the application of inputs that improve the aspects of ecological systems and reduce environmental hazards are necessary.
Lamiaceae family plants have been used for centuries in many countries as a spice in foods, as well as to digest and as a drug against viral diseases.Ziziphora clinopodioides lam. Is one of the herbs and aromatic plants that is used as herbal tea and tea to treat a sore throat, digestive disorders, carminative, antiseptic and wound healer and also used in the food and dairy industrial .This plant has relatively wide distribution in the mountainous regions of Iran, especially Khorasan province (14).
Therefore, in view of the importance of this medicinal plant, this test was conducted to evaluate the effect of organic fertilizers (manure and poultry) on some morphophysiological characteristics of Ziziphora clinopodioides.
This experiment was conducted in designed as a randomized complete block with 3 replications in faculty of agriculture of higher education complex of Shrivan and laboratory experiments were carried out at Gorgan University of Agriculture in 2013-2014. The treatments were included three levels of cow manure (5, 10 and 15 tons per hectare), three levels of poultry manure (2, 4 and 6 tons per hectare) and the control (no fertilizer).
The results indicated that the treatments had a significant effect at 1% on the studied traits. Application of organic fertilizers could increase the rate of some morphological traits including height, canopy diameter, crown diameter, weight of fresh and dry matter yield and total chlorophyll content of the plant. The cow manure treatment with 10 tons per hectare had the highest height (28.91 cm), the highest canopy diameter (31.90 cm) and crown diameter (10.15 cm) were observed in poultry manure treatment with 4 tons per hectare. The cow manure treatment with 10 tons per hectare had the highest weight of fresh yield (412.17 gr per m2) and weight of dry yield (148.88 gr per m2). The highest total chlorophyll content (64.12 mg per cm2) was observed by cow manure treatment with 15 tons per hectare. Also, The maximum amount of phenol, and antioxidants (respectively 0.472 and 59.703) were observed in control. The highest flavonoids content (0.273 mg/g) were observed by cow manure treatment with 5 tons per hectare; poultry manure treatment with 2 tons per hectare and control (No fertilizer).
Therefore, due to the positive effect of organic fertilizers on crops and biochemical properties of Ziziphora clinopodioides, the application of organic fertilizers had positive effects on measured morphological characteristics but negative effects on some biochemical characteristics such as phenols, flavonoids and antioxidants, . So that by increasing the application of organic fertilizers, the amount of morphological parameters were increased and biochemical parameters decreased.