سرخارگل

A factorial experiment was conducted based on randomized complete block design with three replications in Zanjan University (during 1396-97 and 1397-98). Salicylic-acid (control, 50, 100 and 150 mM) and methyl-jasmonate (control, 50, 100 and 200 μM) treatments were sprayed on Echinacea plants (four plants per plot) in the first and second years (two stages, 20 days interval). The results showed that salicylic-acid and methyl-jasmonate have a significant effect on vase-life of flower, leaf-area, fresh and dry weight of roots, chlorophylls a and b and catalase and peroxidase. Also, the highest vase-life of flower was obtained in treatment of 100 mM salicylic-acid and 200 μM methyl-jasmonate and the highest fresh and dry weight of roots and leaf-area were obtained in treatment of 100 mM salicylic-acid and 100 μM methyl-jasmonate. The highest relative water-content of petal and catalase were obtained in treatment of 100 mM salicylic-acid and 100 μM of methyl-jasmonate (first year) and in treatment of 100 mM of salicylic-acid and 50 μM of methyl-jasmonate (second year). The amount of peroxidase was also high in treatments of 100 mM salicylic-acid and 200 μM methyl-jasmonate (first year) and 100 mM salicylic-acid and 100 μM methyl-jasmonate (second year). The highest amount of chlorophyll a in both years and chlorophyll b in the first year were in 100 mM salicylic-acid and 50 μM methyl-jasmonate treatment. Also, the highest amount of total-chlorophyll was obtained in 50 mM salicylic-acid and 200 μmol methyl-jasmonate (first year) and 100 mmol salicylic-acid and 50 μM methyl-jasmonate treatment (second year).

Cadmium is a heavy metal that contaminates water and soil. In order to study on soil cadmium tolerance and remediation ability of Echinacea purpurea, a greenhouse experiment in a completely randomized design was conducted by pots filled with soil and cadmium nitrate [Cd(NO3)2] in concentrations of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20, 25 mg kg-1. The results showed that with the addition of cadmium in the soil, cadmium uptake by roots and aerial parts (bioconcentration factor) was increased while the ability of cadmium transfer from root to shoot (translocation factor) was decreased. Increasing the concentration of cadmium resulted in 13, 15, 37 and 19 percent reduction in leaf number, plant length, shoot fresh and dry weight, but with an increase of 18 and 22 percent root fresh and dry weight, high resistance to cadmium was observed. Flowering indices exhibited flowering ability of E. purpurea in different concentration of cadmium. Total chlorophyll content declined by increasing cadmium concentration, while anthocyanin, carotenoid and some tolerance indicators such as total sugars and proline elevated significantly (P<0.05). In addition, higher concentrations of soil cadmium caused 11 percent increment in electrolyte leakage and 43 percent decrement in antioxidant capacity. Overall, E. purpurea with high resistance to cadmium had an ability to remediate cadmium-contaminated soil with concentration up to 25 mg kg-1.

The hairy roots induced by Agrobacterium rhizogenes due to the stability and mass production in hormone free culture provide an appropriate tissue for secondary metabolite production, and the content of metabolites produced could be affected by bacterial strain. In the current study, the effect of different strains of A. rhizogenes including A4, A13 and 15834 on the percentage of hairy root induction of Echinacea purpurea (L.) moench. in the leaf and hypocotyl explants were studied. In another experiment, total phenolics and polysaccharides content of hairy roots were measured compared to the control (untransformed) roots. The results showed that the percentage of hairy root induction was significantly affected by bacterial strains, so that in E. purpurea leaves incubated by strains A13, 15834 and A4, the hairy root induction was 60%, 40% and 0, and in hypocotyl explants was 85%, 45% and 70%, respectively. Maximum total phenolic compounds were observed in A4 strain. As well, in comparison to control, the polysaccharide content in hairy root induced by strains 15834 and A13 increased and by A4 strain decreased significantly. Differences observed in this study about hairy root induction and secondary metabolites production could be due to different ability of A. rhizogenes strains in T-DNA transferring to plant cells.

Echinacea purpurea L., known collectively as a medicinal species of Asteraceae family, is a perennial herb found in eastern and central United States and southern Canada. Whole parts of the plants, especially their roots contain valuable compounds which are as an immune system booster and blood purifier. Due to Echinacea purpurea L. economical and medical valus, breeding and selection of the superior genotypes for morphological and phytochemical characters is important. To achive the aims, this study were designed to select the best genotypes bassed on evaluation of their progenies in a diverse population. Thus, after land preparation, treated seeds and seedlings of the species were sown on the basis of a simple lattice design with two replications and their phenological stages as well as crop yield and 12 different characters were studied. Analysis of variance of the collected data revealed that the half-sib families were significantly different (p>0.01) based on the studied characters such as leaf area, flowering commencement, bud number, flower number, plant height, flower diameter, plant fresh and dried weight. According to the results, based on the means and GCA of the studied traits such as leaf area, number of buds and flowers, plant height, plant diameter, the number of branches from the base and dried weight, families of the 93, 72, 92 and 97 were the best, for which by combining their parent seeds to form the next improved population might be optimistic.

In order to study the effect of organic fertilizers and biological characteristics on the growth, yield and agronomic characteristics of medicinal plant Purple Coneflower in the cloud for factorial in a randomized complete block design, with three replications research farm, located in the city were carried out in the year 2014 Mahmoud Abad. Factor of organic fertilizers include manure application in three levels to the value of 5 and 10 tons per hectare and the lack of control or consumption, and bio-fertilizer on plots with four levels of bacteria, Pseudomonas putida, Azospirillum lipoferum Pseudomonas Azospirillum and control. The results showed that the use of biological fertilizers animals and lead to increased root length, root volume, root dry weight, leaf length, leaf width, leaf and flower dry weight compared to the control.Use a combination of two bacteria, along with 10 tons of manure consumption increased about 40 percent in comparison with control performance were dry. Mutual effects of manure and the bacteria showed that the highest number of goals in 10 tons of the fertilizer application and integration of a number of bacteria with an average of 26.83 consumption and the lowest number in it with an average of 15.83 patients not using cow manure and bacteria, respectively.

This experiment was designed to investigate the comparison of thyme (Thymus vulgaris L.), coneflower (Echinacea purpurea (L.) Moench.), garlic (Allium sativum L.) extracts and virginiamycin antibiotic as growth promoter in poultry industry on performance and carcass characteristics of Broilers. A total four hundred and eighty 1-day old male broiler (Ross strain) chicks were assigned to the basal diet (control) and basal diet supplemented with 0.15% virginiamycin, 0.1% extracts of thyme (Thymus vulgaris), coneflower (Echinacea purpurea), garlic (Allium sativum) and mixture of extracts with the same dose. At the end of the experiment two chickens from each replication were randomly selected and killed to investigate the weigh of digestive organs and fat pad. There was significant difference in feed conversion ratio (FCR) between the treatments (p<0.05). Highest and lowest body weight and weight gain respected to virginiamycin and coneflower, (p<0.05) respectively. Virginiamycin increased feed consumption but this difference was not significant with other groups except coneflower (p>0.05). Lowest and highest FCR was related to virginiamycin and coneflower (p<0.05) respectively. However there was non significant difference in feed conversion between virginiamycin group and thyme (Thymus vulgaris) (p>0.05). There was no difference in carcass characteristics and fat pad except small intestinal weight. Virginiamycin had the lowest small intestinal weight but the control had the highest (p<0.05).