Influence of growth stage on essential oil content and major chemical constituents of Artemisia pallens Bess

Davana (Artemisia pallens Bess), belonging to Asteraceae family, is an important aromatic crop of South India. The field experiment was laid out in randomized randomized complete block design (RCBD) with 6 replication during winter season 2018-2019. The 35 days old seedling were transplanting to the main field with spacing of 30 cm × 30 cm in order to investigate the influence of different growth stages on the essential oil content and major chemical composition of davana. The essential oil content found to be varied from vegetative stage (0.12%) to full blooming stage (0.25%). The major component davanone was found to be higher at before anthesis followed by anthesis stage (full blooming stage) and gradually decreased from early initiation of seed set stage to seed maturing stage. However, the amounts of other major constituent of davana oil like (E)-ethyl cinnamate and bicyclo germacrene increased from the vegetative stage to the seed maturing stage. Significant interaction effect observed between chemical content and different stages. Based on the experimental results full blooming stage is ideal for harvesting and it was also confirmed with the normal practice of farmers harvesting the crop.