Effect of Compound Containing Amino Acid Spraying on Morphological and Biochemical Characteristics of Bitter Squash (Momordica charantia L.)

The present study was carried out to evaluate the effect of amino acid on growth, yield and biochemical characteristics of squash bitter under field conditions. Amino acid was applied in four levels )0, 1.5, 3 and 4.5 ml.L-1) of a commercial compound containing amino acid (Tecamin Max) during three stages of foliar spraying (before flowering, flowering and fruit set time).The experiment was laid out according to randomized complete block design with three replications at university of Birjand. Amino acid rate increasing affected significantly plant vegetative growth (fresh and dry weight and leaf area). Amino acid fertilizer affected photosynthetic pigments (chl a, chl b and total chl). The highest amount of chl a, b and total chl (4.94, 6.06 and 11.10 mg. g-1f.w) were obtained in plants treated with 4.5 ml.L-1 amino acid, while the lowest values were recorded in the control. It was observed that amino acid improved on quantitative characteristics of bush, so that the highest bush length and number of lateral branches were obtained at the highest level of the amino acid. Application of different levels of amino acid had a positive effect on the yield indices (fruit weight,  fruit length, number of fruits and yield) and biochemical characteristics of fruit (antioxidants activity and total phenol). The highest yield (4740.3 kg. ha-1), total phenol (8.68 mg GAE/100g) and antioxidant activity (68.48%) were obtained in plants treated with 4.5 ml.L-1amino acid. Results showed that amino acid had strongly influenced vegetative and reproductive growth of bitter squash.