Journal of Ornamental Plants
Volume:12 Issue: 3, Summer 2022

Catharanthus roseus (L.) G. Don (Apocynaceae) commonly called as “flower of immortality”, “the flower of death”, “violet of the sorcerers” and “an emblem of friendship”. It is a well-known weed to employed for treating various disorders. The study aims at far-reaching review on phytochemistry, pharmacological activities, ethnopharmacology, characterization, chemical composition, and biological applications of C. roseus plants which aids to provide scientific evidence for the ethnobotanical claims and to identify gaps required to be conducted as a future research requirement. Most of the traditional and systematic uses obtained from the extraction of C. roseus plants were validated by the scientific studies such as antimicrobial activity, anticancer activity, antidiabetic activity, antileukemia activity, antioxidant activity, chemotherapeutic drugs and therapy, wound healing, production of nanoparticles and nanoproducts, etc. Isolated compounds, mainly terpenoid indole alkaloids (TIA) such as ajmalicine, anhydrovinblastine, catharanthine, serpentine, vindoline, vinblastine, vincristine, and vindolinine were confirmed and showed potent activity. This review article explores the phytochemistry, ethnopharmacological, pharmacological and biological activities of C. roseus plants which gives the evidence of a potent and commercial drug which up on further research leads to the most viable drug for variety of treatments.

In addition to its ornamental and medicinal applications, marigold is considered an edible flower, too. To produce marigold with safe and non-chemical methods, a factorial experiment was conducted based on a completely randomized design with three replications and 20 treatments. The experimental treatments included two cultivars of marigold (‘Yellow’ and ‘Orange’) and three amino acids including arginine, glutamine, and proline at three levels (100, 500, and 1000 µM), as well as distilled water as the control treatment. The results showed that amino acids had positive effects on the recorded traits. The treatment of 100 µM arginine outperformed other treatments in increasing leaf number, flower diameter, shoot fresh weight, and shoot dry matter, reducing electrolyte leakage, and improving catalase activity in cv. ‘Orange’. In cv. ‘Yellow’, the highest leaf number, shoot fresh weight and root dry matter, the lowest polyphenol oxidase activity, the lowest electrolyte leakage, and the highest catalase activity were related to the treatment of 1000 µM proline. The highest total phenol was obtained from 100 µM arginine in two cultivar. With the application of amino acids, flavonoids were increased in both cultivars versus the control. Therefore, it is recommended to apply amino acids, especially arginine (100 µM) and proline (1000 µM), to produce marigolds ‘Orange’ and ‘Yellow’ in an organic way, respectively.

The vase life of cut roses is decreased by ethylene and water stress. Ethanol and sodium benzoate are among the antimicrobial and anti-ethylene compounds that are applied to vase solutions. This research investigated the effect of different rates of ethanol (0, 2, 4, and 6 %) and sodium benzoate (0, 150, 200, and 250 mg l-1) on the vase life of cut roses cv. ‘Avalanche’ in a factorial experiment based on a randomized complete block design with 16 treatments and three replications. The experimental treatments were applied as a 24-hour pulse. Distilled water was used as the control. The results showed the significant interactive effect of “ethanol × sodium benzoate” on improving vase life and other studied traits. The longest vase life (13 days), water uptake (3.54 ml g-1 F.W.), dry matter (44.38 %), petal protein (35.08 %), and total chlorophyll (13.09 mg g-1 F.W.) were obtained from the application of “ethanol 4 % × 150 mg l-1 sodium benzoate”. This treatment also exhibited the lowest fresh weight loss (1.98 %), stem-end bacteria population (8.33 Log10 CFU ml), vase solution bacteria population (23.33 Log10 CFU ml), and ethylene synthesis (0.4 nl l-1 h-1 g-1 F.W.). According to the results, it is recommended to apply “ethanol 4% × 150 mg l-1 sodium benzoate” to preserve the quality and extend the vase life of cut roses cv. ‘Avalanche’.

This experiment was performed to evaluate the application of Azolla compost in growth environments containing peat + perlite in comparison with cocopeat + perlite on the growth and nutrition of chrysanthemums in a completely randomized design with five levels of Azolla (0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% ) in three replication. It was found that the nutrients of Azolla compost substrates were richer than peat and cocopeat. The results showed that use of Azolla as compost increases the elements of phosphorus and potassium in the growing medium, but only the potassium increases in the leaves. The highest amount of leaf nitrogen and potassium was at 50% compost. Twenty five to seventy-five percent compost was not significantly different from peat or cocopeat in terms of final plant hieght, flowering branch length, number of leaves and petal carotenoids. With increasing compost, physical properties of the substrates were within the recommended range, and bulk density (0.31, 0.33, 0.30 and 0.30 g cm-3, respectively) increased compared to peat and cocopeat (0.18 and 0.16 g cm-3). One hundered percent compost had the highest chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b and total chlorophyll. Substitution of 25-100 % compost increased pH and EC of growth media. The results showed that the use of 25-75% compost could be a good alternative to peat, but was not significantly different from cocopeat. Due to the relatively high price and import of peat and cocopeat, and the negative impact of high amounts of compost on increasing growth medium EC, the use of 50% Azolla compost is economically preferred.

Lack of knowledge of vital factors in the production and cultivation of plants in unsuitable areas can increase the use of chemical fertilizers to prevent a reduction in plant yield. In the present study, the factor analysis (FA) by principal component analysis (PCA) method as multivariate statistical was applied to evaluate the Land suitability zonation of 36700 points for damask rose plantation in North Khorasan Province, NE Iran. For this purpose, the extracted 16 variables were processed, resulting in four factors that explain about 90 % of the total variance. The explained variances of those factors are varied from 28.573 to 8.855% for factors 1 and 4 after the Varimax rotation, respectively. The zonation map of land suitability revealed that 2.61% (665.6 km2) of the surface area was highly suitable, 95.78% (24410.47 km2) was moderately suitable and 1.61% (409.74 km2) of the region was marginally suitable for damask rose production. The geographical distribution revealed that the points with very high suitability are laid in the western, middle, and eastern parts of the study area, while the mid part of the study area and some scattered parts in the east, northeast, and northwest exhibited moderate suitability for damask rose. The most important limiting factors for the damask rose plantation in the study area were climatic factors including mean temperature during the growing cycle, mean temperature during the germination, and mean temperature during the flowering.

Indoor air pollution is one of the most important environmental subjects in the world with serious side effects on human health. We report the result of three replications and a factorial design experiment that assesses the effect of plants (Epipremnum aureum and Dracaena trifasciata ) on the removal of indoor air pollution. To gain the objects, potted plants were placed individually in 125 liters airtight glass containers (chamber) which had a small valve to inject and sucking airs. Each plant was exposure to, benzene 25 and 50 µl/l, acetone 25 and 50 µl/l, ethanol 50 µl/l and methanol 50 µl/l during a day (24 hours). According to the biochemical examination electrolyte leakage (%) of pothos was decreased especially in acetone 25 µl/l versus on treated sansevieria increased. Total chlorophyll content of sansevieria in all treatments was increased, while it was decreased when pothos exposure to benzene 25, benzene 50 µl/l and methanol 50 µl/l catalase activity and superoxide dismutase showed converse results. In both plant species catalase activity was decreased especially in acetone 50, however superoxide dismutase activity was increased in all treatments and in sansevieria exposure to benzene 50 µl/l more than others. There was no significant change in proline content of pothos, although there was significant increase in acetone 50 µl/l and ethanol 50 µl/l of sansevieria. The results indicate when plants exposure to the benzene, tissue cells damaged more than other treatments while, acetone had least amount of tissue cell damage. According to this paper results, both plant species have the potential of indoor air pollution phytoremediation but, pothos had higher adaptability in pollutant indoor area.