Paper
Determination of the Best Harvesting Times to Obtain Maximum Dry Herbage, Essential Oil and Thymol Yield in Garden Thyme (Thymus Vulgaris L.)
- Authors:
- Ahmad Reza Golparvar
- Abstract
- Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) is widely used in pharmacy, cosmetics and Food industries of developed countries; it is a strong disinfectant with antioxidant. Randomized complete blocks design was used to determine the effects of harvesting times on herbage yield and quality/quantity of oil in Garden thyme. This study was conducted in research farm of Khorasgan branch of Islamic Azad University in 2010-2012 years. Plants were harvested in five harvesting times, i.e. in the vegetative stage, beginning of blooming, 50% blooming, full blooming and fruit set stages. Oils were extracted by hydrodistillation. Thymol percentage was determined by GC/MS. Results showed the significant effects of harvesting times on essence and thymol yield and percentage. Mean comparison showed that beginning of blooming has significantly the highest essence efficiency (2.51%). Although, 50% blooming stage showed the highest fresh and dry herbage as well as essence and thymol yield. In conclusion, it is recommended to harvest this plant at 50% blooming to gain the highest essence and thymol yield and dry herbage in Thymus vulgaris L.
- Keywords
- Thyme; Harvesting Times; Dry Herbage; Essential Oil; Thymol Yield
- StartPage
- 1
- EndPage
- 4
- Doi
- 10.5963/LSMR0101001