Abstract: Genotype and Harvesting age are found to be an important factor which affects the herbage and essential oil yield of sweet basil. Knowing harvesting age in aromatic crop production is essential for essential oil extraction to optimize the biomass production and to harvest the crop before any deterioration on biomass, oil content and quality occurs. It was found that the chemical composition of the essential oil in sweet basil is highly related to the age of the leaves, thus emphasizing the importance of the growth stage at which harvesting takes place. The relationship between age and essential oil content arises from the process of biosynthesis. Essential oil synthesis occurs only in very young cells; as the synthesis proceeds, the oil is released outside the cell. At the early period of leaf development, the release of oil is high and it remains at the same level during further period of leaf growth, when leaf weight increases significantly. Therefore, the amount of oil in the leaf, expressed in percent, decreases with plant growth; this also results from losses caused by oil evaporation. The cultivar, cropping period, plant ontogeny, and plant part have a determining effect on the yield and quality of the volatile oil of sweet basil. The extraction of essential oil at an appropriate age of plant makes it possible to obtain the highest herbage yield, essential oil yield and content of the desired components with special biological activity. Sweet basil genotypes have different herbage yield, essential oil yield and contents and differences in the essential oil yield and its components among the studied landraces of basil could be attributed to genetic diversity.

Keywords: Chemical composition, Essential oil, Genotype, Harvesting age, Herbage.

Title: Review on Effects of Genotypes and Harvesting age on Herbage and Oil Production of Sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.)

Author: Damtew Abewoy

ISSN 2394-9716

International Journal of Novel Research in Interdisciplinary Studies

Novelty Journals