Effects of biological and organic fertilizers on morphological and phytochemical characteristics of Iranian borage (Echium amoenum Fisch. & C. A. Mey.)

Iranian Borage (Echium amoenum Fisch. & C. A. Mey.) is a herbaceous, biennial or perennial herb and an important medicinal plant of the Boraginaceae family. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of biological and organic fertilizers on morphological and phytochemical characteristics of Iranian Borage. This study was carried out in a completely randomized design with five treatments and three replicates. The treatments included vermicompost fertilizer at three levels with the volume ratio of 10, 20 and 30 percent; chicken manure at three levels with the volume ratio of 5, 10 and 20 percent; biosulfur fertilizer at 5, 10 and 15 grams; nitroxin fertilizer at 5, 10 and 15 ml of water for seed; humics fertilizer at three levels of 100, 200 and 300 grams in 5 ml of water for seed, and control pots. Features such as plant height, stem number, leaf number, leaf length, leaf width, number of flower, calyx length, corolla length, dry weight and the amount of anthocyanin and flavonoid were measured in three wavelengths of 270, 300 and 330 nm. The results indicated that different levels of biological and organic fertilizers had a significant effect on morphological and phytochemical characters. In general, humics fertilizer (300 grams) was the best treatment for increasing the number of stem and number of flowers, and chicken manure (20 percent) and vermicompost (30 percent) were the best treatments in terms of impact on the anthocyanin level, and humics fertilizer (300 grams) and chicken manure (10 and 20 percent) were the best treatments in terms of impact on the flavonoid level. Due to the damaging effects of chemical fertilizers and the favorable effects observed for biological and organic fertilizers, the use of biological and organic fertilizers is recommended in order to cultivate Iranian Borage.