EFFECT OF BIOLOGICAL, ORGANIC AND CHEMICAL FERTILIZERS ON SOME ANTIOXIDANT ACTIVITIES AND YIELD OF BASIL (Ocimum basilicum L.)

Abstract

To investigate the effect of combined application of organic and bio-chemical fertilizers on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of basil (Ocimum basilicum L.), an experiment was conducted in a randomized complete block design with six treatments and three replications at Urmia University Research Field. Treatments including: control (no fertilizer), Azotobacter biofertilizer, Azotobacter + livestock manure, Azotobacter + vermicompost, Azotobacter + phosphorus biofertilizer, Azotobacter + chemical fertilizers were considered. The studied traits included essential oil content, phenolic and flavonoid content, DPPH radical scavenging, superoxide radical scavenging, and nitric acid radical scavenging activity. The results showed that the application of organic and biofertilizers had the greatest effect on increasing the studied traits including essential oil content, total phenol content. The results of this study suggest that the use of organic and bio-fertilizers and the reduction of the use of chemical fertilizers are recommended because of the remarkable results in the experiment.