Effects of Plant Density and Nitrogen Fertilizer on Dry Flower Yield and Essential Oil Content of Chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla)

Chamomile is a valuable medicinal plant and is used as spice and herbal medicine. Application of agronomical methods has important role in increasing quantitative and qualitative traits of this medicinal plant. Fertilizer management is an important factor in successful cultivation of medicinal plants, which could have positive effects on their quantitative and qualitative indices. This experiment was conducted in order to determine the effects of plant density and nitrogen (N) fertilizer on dry flower yield and essential oil content of chamomile (Matricaria chamomilla) using factorial randomized complete blocks design with three replications. Three N rates from urea source (0, 100 and 200 kg/ha) and three plant densities (28.6, 40 and 66.7 plants per m2) were considered. The results showed that the highest single plant yield was produced in the lowest plant density (28.6 plants per m2) and application of 100 kg/ha N. The highest dry flower yield of 474.1 kg/ha and essential oil content of 0.2% was produced in 25 cm row width and fixed plant spacing of 10 cm (40 plants per m2) and application of 100 kg/ha N.