Effect of Colchicine on Polyploidy Induction and Morphophysiological Characteristics of Ajowan (Carum copticum L.) Population of Sistan Geographical Area

Ajowan (Carum copticum L.) is a plant in the umbellifer family Apiaceae. It’s essential containing thymol, parasiman, and alpha-pinene, carvacrol, which has antimicrobial and fungicidal properties. Polyploidy induction, one of the herbal remediation methods, is used to increase the production of secondary metabolites by using mutagenic chemicals. To investigate the effects of polyploidy induction on the population of Sistan Ajowan an experiment was conducted in a completely randomized design with a randomized design using the colchicine factor (0.2, 0.5, 0.75 and 1 g/l) and period Treatment (6, 12 and 18 h). To obtain the best concentration and time duration of colchicine treatment, the tetraploid plants were cultivated with control plants. Some morphological, physiological, and biochemical were studied. Analysis of variance showed that tetraploid induction was significant for plant height, stem diameter, flower number, lateral branch number, root diameter, fresh weight, chlorophyll a and b, carotenoid, peroxidase, catalase, total protein, and flavonoid. The results of this study showed that the best treatment for ploidy induction was obtained at 0.5 g L -1 and duration of 6 h. The number of chromosomes in diploid plants was 2 and in tetraploid plants were 2, so it can be concluded that colchicine is capable of inducing polyploidy in mating plants. . Results showed that tetraploid (treated) plants were physiologically (chlorophyll a, anthocyanin, ascorbate peroxidase, catalase, phenol, and carotenoid) and morphological (lateral branch number, plant height, leaf number, leaf length and width, and fresh weight). And dry) were superior to control plants. This breeding method can also be used for mating plants.