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Journal of Essential Oil Bearing Plants

ISSN: 0972-060X (Print) 0976-5026 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/teop20

Effect of Thiobacillus and Superabsorbent onEssential Oil Components in Thyme Species

Pouneh Pouramini, Mohammad Hossein Fotokian, Hossein Dehghan &Goetz Hensel

To cite this article: Pouneh Pouramini, Mohammad Hossein Fotokian, Hossein Dehghan& Goetz Hensel (2019) Effect of Thiobacillus and Superabsorbent on Essential OilComponents in Thyme Species, Journal of Essential Oil Bearing Plants, 22:3, 799-810, DOI:10.1080/0972060X.2019.1623086

To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/0972060X.2019.1623086

Published online: 04 Aug 2019.

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Effect of Thiobacillus and Superabsorbent onEssential Oil Components in Thyme Species

Pouneh Pouramini 1,4, Mohammad Hossein Fotokian 2,Hossein Dehghan 3, Goetz Hensel 4,5*

1 Horticulture Department, Faculty of Agriculture Sciences, Karaj University, Karaj, Iran2 Agricultural College, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran

3 Medicinal Plants Research Center, Shahed University, Tehran, Iran4 Leibniz Institute of Plant Genetics and Crop Plant Research (IPK),

Plant Reproductive Biology, Seeland OT Gatersleben, Germany5 Department of Molecular Biology, Centre of the Region Hana for Biotechnological andAgriculture Research, Faculty of Science, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic

Abstract: Plants of the Lamiacea family have a long tradition in folk medicine and are used as aromaherbs due to their high content of essential oils. The objective of this research was to examine the possibility ofimproving the quantity and quality of essential oil in thyme through nutrition of the seedlings using Thiobacillus

bio-fertilizer and treatment by superabsorbent. For this purpose, seedlings of two thyme species (Thymus

vulgaris and Thymus daenensis) were sown in pots and exposed to different levels of Thiobacillus andsuperabsorbent. Results of Gas chromatography/Mass spectrometry (GC/MS) revealed that the main compoundsdetected for T. vulgaris were thymol (31.5 %), p-cymene (23.4 %), γ-terpinene (13.9 %), linalool (38.3 %) andcarvacrol (2.7 %) while the main compounds of T. daenensis were thymol (51.2 %), o-cymene (12.9 %), γ-terpinene (4.5 %), linalool (1.7 %) and borneol (3.1 %). Furthermore, the application of Thiobacillus had asignificant effect on α-pinene content (p=0.05). Moreover, the interaction between superabsorbent andThiobacillus significantly changed the percentage of thymol, borneol, and caryophyllene.

Key words: Borneol, carvacrol, caryophyllene, thymol, thyme.

IntroductionThe genus Thymus, with about 215 species, is

one of the eight most important genera of theLamiacea family. Thyme, a plant native to theMediterranean region (Spain, Italy, France, Greece,etc.), has long been used as a source of essentialoil and other constituents (e.g. thymol, flavanoid,caffeic acid and labiatic acid) derived from thedifferent parts of the plant. In addition to theirnumerous traditional uses, the plant (herb) and itsessential oil have found diverse applications in

pharmacy and medicine 1.Thymus vulgaris is a perennial medicinal plant,

cultivated worldwide for a lot of uses like culi-nary, cosmetic and medical purposes. This spe-cies has special activities such as antispasmodic,expectorant, antiseptic, antimicrobial and antioxi-dant 2,3. Thymus daenensis is native to Iran 4.

Optimal nutrition along with non-stress condi-tions has a significant impact on the quantity andquality of essential oil in medicinal plants. Depend-ing on the growing conditions (different environ-

ISSN Print: 0972-060XISSN Online: 0976-5026

*Corresponding author (Goetz Hensel)E-mail: < [email protected] > 2019, Har Krishan Bhalla & Sons

Received 19 November 2018; accepted in revised form 22 May 2019

TEOP 21 (3) 2018 pp 799 - 810 799

ments, climates, soil and geographical location)thyme can provide various therapeutic properties5. Plant growth, quality and quantity of active in-gredients mainly depends on genetic manipulationwhile environmental factors play a major role byleading to changes in the growth, quality and quan-tity of active substances such as alkaloids, glyco-sides, essential oils 6. While thyme species weregrown at different soil types, more sandy loamsare preferred. Growth conditions influence archi-tecture as well as the essential oil content of Thy-

mus vulgaris. While on one hand drought nega-tively influence the overall biomass of Thymus

vulgaris 7, the essential oil content increased 8.Dry, rocky habitats lead to more basal branchingand increased humidity lead to a shift in branch-ing towards apical branching 9.

Thyme contains 0.8 to 2.6 % (generally 1 %)of essential oils which is primarily comprised (20to 80 %) of phenols, monoterpenes (e.g. p-cymeneand γ-terpinene), and alcohols (e.g. linalool, α-

terpinene and is thujan-4-ol). In general, thymolconstitutes the highest content of phenolic com-pounds while carvacrol is a minor part of the es-sential oil of thyme 10. In a study by Barazandehand Bagherzadeh 11 investigating the essential oilof the aerial parts of Thymus daenensis. GC/MSresults showed that among the 43 indicated com-ponents, thymol (73.9 %), carvacrol (6.7 %), para-

cymene (4.6 %), β-bisabolene (1.5%) and terpi-nen-4-ol (1.4 %) were the main constituents.

Bio-fertilizers are of great importance and playthe largest role in increasing the productivity andmaintaining soil fertility in sustainable agriculture12. Bio-fertilizers are microbial inoculants consist-ing of living cells of microorganism like bacteria,algae and fungi alone or combination which canhelp in increasing crop productivity. Organic ma-nures can serve as alternative to mineral fertiliz-ers for improving soil structure, soil nutrients, soilphysical and chemical characteristics, increase soilfertility and plants resistance to diseases and saltstress, decrease plant diseases, improving cropgrowth, development, yield and quality throughdirectly synthesizing hormones, antibodies andsecondary metabolites 13,14. Though organic andbiological methods plays a key role in increasingqualitative and quantitative herbal and essentialoil yield 15. For thyme species several studies sup-

port the beneficial effect of bio-fertilizers and or-ganic agriculture on growth and essential oil con-tent 16,17,18. Studies on organic and inorganic fer-tilizer applications on growth and essential oil con-tent on Thymus daenensis Celak showed high-est content of the phenolic monoterpene thymolafter combined fertilizer applications 19. In a re-cent study, the influence of humic acid on theessential oil composition of Thymus vulgaris wasanalysed. The authors could showed that increas-ing humic acid concentrations up to 100 g m-2 leadto increase of thymol content 20.

In many regions of Iran, soil type is calcareouswith high pH. Therefore, some nutrients such asphosphorus, iron and zinc are stabilized and non-absorbable for plants. In such situations, Thio-

bacillus bacteria can reduce the pH of the soil inthe presence of sulphur resulting in the solubilityof nutrients around the root area 21.

These previously mentioned issues have in-creased along with limited water resources in thearid and semi-arid ecosystems of Iran 22. Waterstress has many adverse effects on the plant’sprocesses such as reduction in the leaf area in-dex, the number of leaves and shoots dry weight23,24. Medicinal plants are not accepted and wa-ter stress reduces the quantity and quality of ac-tive ingredients while these herbs need to perfectvegetative and reproductive growth in order tocombine the ingredients 24. Superabsorbents areable to reduce the need to be irrigated by up to 33% with no side effects on the soil and the envi-ronment 22. Superabsorbent is natural or syntheticcontain over 99 % water. Hydrogels have beendefined as polymeric materials which exhibit theability of swelling in water and retaining a signifi-cant fraction (>20 %) of water within their struc-ture, without dissolving in water 25. Superabsorbenthydrogels are increase soil capacity to hold wa-ter, nutrients and improve the plant’s growth andyield 26. Although the application of superabsorbentand Thiobacillus have been separately studied,to our knowledge, their combined effects havenot yet been examined on medicinal plants. There-fore, this research was conducted to investigatethe possibility of improving the quantity and qual-ity of essential oil in thyme through nutrition ofthe seedlings by Thiobacillus bio-fertilizer andincrease of available water through the applica-

Pouneh Pouramini et al., / TEOP 21 (3) 2018 799 - 810 800

tion of a superabsorbent.

Materials and methodsExperimental condition

The experiment was conducted in a greenhouseon a research farm of an Agricultural Engineer-ing Park affiliated with the Ministry of Agricul-ture in Jihad, Karaj, Iran (56.5 ° East longitudeand 35.47 ° N latitude and an altitude of 1261.1 mabove the sea level) during 2011. Plant growthwas carried out in a greenhouse at 24/18°C day/night mean temperature and 65 % air relative hu-midity. Properties of used soil are presented inTable 1.

TreatmentsA factorial experiment using a completely ran-

domized design with two replications was per-formed. The experiment consisted of three fac-tors Thiobacillus, superabsorbent and thyme(Thymus vulgaris and Thymus daenensis).

Thiobacillus

The commercially available Thiobacillus withname Biosulfur, an bentonite organic sulphur form,was purchased from Asia Biotechnology company,Tehran/Iran (http://asiabiotechnology.bpolb.com)were used for this experiment. Either 0 (T0) or0.5 g Thiobacillus kg-1 (T0.5) soil was used.

SuperabsorbentSuperabsorbent (Deym Gostaran Sabz Atieh,

Teheran/Iran) powder was added to soil. Supera-bsorbent gel was used in three levels of 0 (S0),0.5 (S0.5) and 1 g kg-1 (S1) soil.

Plant materialThe seeds of Thymus vulgaris and Thymus

daenensis were purchased from Pakan Bazr com-pany, Esfahan/Iran (http://www.pakanbazr.com).

Herb processing and essential oil isolationThe seeds were planted on 5th of April 2011

and germinated after 17 days. The first flowerwas visible on 13th of July, while the plants wereharvested at a full flowering phase on 30th ofAugust, air-dried at 25°C in the shade and sub-sequently well crushed. The essential oil was ex-tracted by hydro distillation for 120 min using aClevenger-type system 27. Collected essential oilswere stored in dark flasks and kept at -18°C forGC/MS analysis.

Gas chromatography/Mass spectrometryThe essential oils were analysed at Iranian In-

stitute of Medicinal Plants (Tehran/Iran) with GC/MS detailed in Table 2. At final, all data areanalysed by Chemstation software (Agilent, SantaClara/USA) and normal alkanes were obtainedfrom Fluke Company (Dubai/United Arab Emir-ates). For identification of the volatile compounds,mass spectra were compared to publicly avail-able NIST and Wiley libraries.

Statistical analysisStatistical analyses were conducted using SPSS

version 16.0. A normality test of collected dataresiduals was conducted. Analysis of variance(ANOVA) was performed followed by Duncan’smultiple range test to compare the effects of mainand/or sub-main factor levels combination.Pearson’s correlation coefficients were used todetect associations between dependent measures.Statistical significance was concluded with a p-value less than 0.05.

Results and discussionComparison of Thymus vulgaris and Thymus

daenensis essential oil composition

The Thymus vulgaris essential oil included 31constituents which represented 96.7 % of the to-

Table 1. Selected physical and chemical properties of soil used in this study

Texture P K Total Organic Calcium pH EC Percent[ppm] [ppm] Nitrogen matter carbonate [ds/m] saturation

[%] [%] equivalent [%] [%]

Loamy 38 344.7 0.22 2.19 7.5 8.26 1.32 45


Table 2. Details of Gas chromatography/Mass spectrometry analysis

Parameter Description

GC measurement device Agilent 6890Mass measurement device Agilent 5973Column HP-5MSColumn height 30 cmInner diameter of column 0.25 µmInitial temperature 50°CFinal temperature 300°CCarrier gas HeliumDetector Mass

tal analyzed oil. The main compounds includedthymol (31.5 %), p-cymene (23.4 %), γ-terpinene(13.9 %), linalool (3.4 %), thymol methyl ether(3.6 %) and carvacrol (2.7 %). Further compoundsand their constituents are presented in Table 3. Incontrast, the Thymus daenensis species contained33 compounds in the essential oil which repre-sented 96.2 % of the total analyzed oil. The maincompounds included thymol (51.2 %), O-cymene(12.9 %), γ-terpinene (4.5 %), linalool (1.7 %)and borneol (3.1 %). The major differences arein the thymol content as well as monoterpenes(Table 3, highlighted in bold). While some com-pounds are present only in one species, some othercompounds show only minor differences betweenboth species. The components identified in Thy-

mus vulgaris are in accordance with previous lit-erature. A study from Saudi Arabian markets 28

and another study 8 showed similar results regard-ing major thyme components. Since Thymus

daenensis had a higher thymol content comparedto Thymus vulgaris previous studies focused onthis species. Our results find thymol still the maincomponent of the Thymus oil but the quantitiesare below previous published data. The reasonfor that might be the different soil characteristicsbecause the studies have been performed in dif-ferent parts of Iran 4,11.

Extractable oil composition strongly depends onthe method used. In a study conducted by Charlesand Simon 29, a comparison of different extrac-tion methods showed that hydro distillation leadto the extraction of maximum number of constitu-ents with the highest number of volatile constitu-ents in the organic solvent extract. Therefore,hydro distillation appears to be an excellent methodfor extracting the essential oil, as it results in goodyield, good recovery of essential oil constituents,is less labor-intensive and is simpler and fasterthan steam distillation 29.

Table 3. Compounds identified in Thymus vulgaris and Thymus daenensis

T. vulgaris T. daenensis

No. Compound RT [min] [%] RT [min] [%] Class

1 α-Thujene 11:12 1.51 11:05 0.90 MH2 α-Pinene 11:44 1.17 11:35 0.68 MH3 Camphene 12:10 0.78 12:05 0.52 MH4 β-Pinene 13:49 0.36 13:44 0.30 MH5 Octen-3-ol - - 13:86 0.23 Others6 βββββ-Myrcene 14:39 3.32 14:32 0.88 MH7 Phellandrene 14:91 0.18 MH8 α-Phellandrene 15:23 0.44 - - MH


table 3. (continued).

T. vulgaris T. daenensis

No. Compound RT [min] [%] RT [min] [%] Class

9 p-Cymene 16:90 23.40 - - MH10 α-Terpinene - - 15:60 1.14 MH11 o-Cymene - - 16:31 12.87 MH12 1,8-Cineole - - 16:52 1.94 MO13 γγγγγ-Terpinene 18:63 13.94 17:95 4.48 MH14 β-Terpineol 18:80 0.87 18:31 0.84 MO15 α-Terpinolene 19:50 0.25 19:24 0.15 MH16 Linalool 20:47 3.38 20:06 1.68 MO17 Borneol 23:34 1.02 23:73 3.09 MO18 Terpinen-4-ol 23:85 0.84 - - MO19 Borneol 24:49 1.61 - - MO20 ααααα-Terpineol - - 25:76 3.30 MO21 Dihydro carvone - - 26:16 0.13 MO22 Thymol methyl ether 26:72 3.58 26:47 1.19 MO23 Carvacrol methyl ether 27:10 1.65 26:89 0.58 MO24 Thymoquinone - - 28:59 3.02 MO25 Thymol 30:62 31.50 30:64 51.18 MO26 Carvacrol 31:13 2.66 - - MO27 Caryophylene 35:06 1.55 34:96 2.41 SH28 Aromadenderene - - 35:67 0.17 SH29 α-Humulene - - 36:28 0.28 SH30 Geranyl propionate - - 37:00 0.12 Others31 Geranyl propionate 37:13 0.46 - - Others32 α-Amorphene 37:26 0.12 - - SH33 Germacrene D 37:46 0.13 - - SH34 Viridiflorene - - 37:95 0.15 SH35 Cubebol 37:99 0.10 - - SH36 β-Bisabolene - - 38:47 0.42 SH37 γ-Cadinene 38:77 0.18 39:05 0.16 SH38 δ-cadinene 39:13 0.43 - - SO39 Thymohydroquinone - - 40:82 1.18 SO40 Caryophelen oxide 41:54 0.75 41:52 2.13 SO41 Eudesmol 42:87 0.09 - - SO42 α-epi-Cadinol 43:68 0.21 - - SO43 α-Cadinol 44:17 0.10 - - SO44 (E)-14-Hydroxy-9-epi-caryophyllene 44:81 0.13 - - SO45 α-epi-Bisabolol - - 45:20 0.12 Others46 Hexadecanoic acid 54:87 0.13 54:84 0.13 Others47 Abiatatriene - - 60:20 3.22 MH

Total Identified 96.67 96.19

MH: monoterpene hydrocarbons; MO: oxygenated monoterpenes;SH: sesquiterpene hydrocarbons; SO: oxygenated sesquiterpenes


Treatment with superabsorbent and Thio-

bacillus on essential oils contentIn order to analyse the effect of superabsorbent

and Thiobacillus on the essential oils content inthe two thyme species, multifactorial experimentswere performed. Analysis of variance of somecomponents of thyme essential oil is presented inTable 4. The difference between two thyme spe-cies was significant (p< 0.01) for all of the quan-tities of the compounds (Table 5) while thesuperabsorbent effect was not significant for anycompound. The Thiobacillus effect was only sig-nificant for p-cymene (p< 0.05). In the case oftreatment interactions, it was found that thesuperabsorbent × Thiobacillus interaction had asignificant effect on borneol and caryophylenecompounds. Furthermore, the species ×Thiobacillus interaction was significant for thy-mol. The triple interaction among species ×superabsorbent × Thiobacillus had a significanteffect on borneol and caryophylene.

A review of the literature regarding the appli-cation of Thiobacillus showed that there waslittle information about the use on medicinalplants. In a recent study, the effect of Bio-fertil-izer with superabsorbent on the yield and essen-tial oil content of lemon verbena (Lippia

citriodora Kunth.) were analysed. The authorscould show that sole application of treatmentswas useful, but their combined use was moreeffective to increase dry mass and oil yield oflemon verbena 26. In another study in dragon-head, the effect of chemical fertilizer and mi-crobial inoculum application on the yield and nu-trients content of Dracocephalum molda-vica

L. seeds was evaluated. In a field experiment,the highest yield was obtained by chemical fer-tilizers, while seed inoculation with sulfur oxidiz-ing bacteria (Thiobacillus strains) improves theiron nutrient content of the seeds 29. Also, in thepresence of sulphur, Thiobacillus increasednutrient uptake, growth and production of Mel-

issa officinalis oil compared to the control 15.Razban and Pirzad 24 investigated the effect of

superabsorbent on Matricaria chamomilla

growth under different irrigation regimes. Theyreported that superabsorbent was able to com-pensate for the reduction of biomass yield due tolack of water.

Since drought has a negative effect on plantbiomass, several studies were investigating thiskind of stress for essential oil content includingthyme species. Bistgani et al.30 harvested maxi-mum oil yield under mild drought spraying T.

daenensis Celak plants with 400 µl L-1 chitosan,which is in accordance with our findings. In fieldexperiments highest thymol concentrations(~80 %) were achieved in Thymus daenensis at67 % water content 31. Further reduction of wa-ter content to 33 % led to decline in thymol accu-mulation. In an greenhouse experiment the inter-action of irrigation interval and harvest month wereanalysed. As irrigation interval increased herbfresh and essential oil yield decreased. In con-trast the essential oil content of Thymus vulgaris

increased which led to highest thymol yield of63.7 % when harvested after two months and irri-gated every four days 8.

Relations between the main compounds ofessential oil

Pearson’s correlation coefficients between traitsshowed a significant positive association betweenthe numbers of traits (p< 0.01) (Table 6) suggest-ing these may be due to pleiotropic effects of genescontrolling the same pathways, close linkage, and/or epistasis effects.

Interaction between factorsSuperabsorbent × Thiobacillus interaction

Combined levels of the superabsorbent × Thio-

bacillus interaction were significant for borneoland caryophyllene (Table 5 and Figure 1; p< 0.05).The maximum amount of borneol was observedin S0T0 treatment, although there was no signifi-cant difference in the amount of borneol in thetreatment S1T0.5. Although the maximum amountof caryophyllene was observed in S0.5T0.5, the dif-ference of this treatment with S0T0.5 and S1T0treatments was not statistically significant (Fig-ure 1). The differences among superabsorbentlevels were not statistically significant for es-sential components. One reason for this may bethe low difference among levels of superabsor-bent. With the increase of the content in super-absorbent treatment levels, the differences amongthese levels may be significant for essence com-ponents.


Table 4. Analysis of variance of the effects of superabsorbent and Thiobacillus on the essential oil of two species of thyme

Mean squaresS.O.V df ααααα-Thujene ααααα-Pinene Camphene βββββ-Myrcene p-Cymene γγγγγ-Terpinene Linalool Borneol Thymol Caryophyllene

S 1 0.562** 1.321** 0.702** 11.323** 2110.034** 441.438** 19.706** 3.683** 2545.542** 28.423**

SA 2 0.024ns 0.058ns 0.038ns 0.061ns 7.561ns 11.952ns 0.005ns 0.232ns 74.919ns 0.251ns

T 1 0.022ns 0.003ns 0.001ns 0.018ns 40.755* 0.832ns 0.438ns 0.061ns 1.322ns 0.295ns

T×SA 2 0.026ns 0.054ns 0.034ns 0.001ns 10.054ns 4.751ns 0.238ns 0.481* 11.094ns 0.559*

S×SA 2 0.021ns 0.030ns 0.010ns 0.075ns 0.319ns 11.882ns 0.338ns 0.001ns 41.655ns 0.263ns

S×T 1 0.055ns 0.107ns 0.018ns 0.002ns 25.058ns 0.695ns 0.096ns 0.034ns 433.359* 0.112ns

S×T×SA 2 0.009ns 0.026ns 0.036ns 0.008ns 22.564ns 5.611ns 0.183ns 0.384* 61.169ns 0.469*

Error 11 0.013 0.027 0.028 0.022 8.132 3.251 0.317 0.089 43.097 0.108CV % - 26.4 25.1 29.2 17.5 16.9 29.2 29.4 24.6 11.6 16

Symbols: S, Species; SA, Superabsorbent; T, Thiobacillus.

*, ** significant differences at p< 0.05 and p< 0.01, respectively.

Table 5. Mean comparisons between two species for essence components by Duncan’s multiple range test

Species ααααα-Thujene ααααα-Pinene Camphene βββββ-Myrcene p-Cymene γγγγγ-Terpinene Linalool Borneol Thymol Caryophyllene

T. vulgaris 0.583 0.887 0.743 1.529 26.181 9.192 2.823 1.603 46.297 0.964T. daenensis 0.277 0.418 0.401 0.156 7.428 0.615 1.011 0.8197 66.895 3.141

-Refer to variance analysis (Table 4), the differences between two Thymus species is statistically significant at p< 0.01

Pouneh Pouramini e

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Car

yoph

ylle

ne (

%)

Born

eol (

%)

Superabsorbent SuperabsorbentFigure 1. Caryophyllene and borneol change trend across superabsorbent and Thiobacillus

interaction levels over the thymus species. Values with different letters in each graph are significantlydifferent according to Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (p< 0.05)

Species × Thiobacillus interactionThe interaction between species × Thiobacillus

was significant for thymol (p< 0.05; Table 5).Using Thiobacillus in Thymus daenensis led toa significant reduction in the amount of thymoland an increase in the amount of thymol in Thy-

mus vulgaris (Figure 2).

The triple interaction among species ×superabsorbent ×Thiobacillus

Significant differences among combinations ofthis interaction were observed only for borneoland caryophyllene (p< 0.05) (Table 7). The maxi-mum amount of caryophyllene was obtained withThymus daenensis in the S0.5T0.5 treatment, withno statistically significant differences of this treat-ment with S1T0. Application of superabsorbent andThiobacillus did not improve the amount ofborneol. The amount of borneol in Thymus vul-

garis was significantly higher than Thymus

daenensis. The maximum amount of borneol wasobserved in the S0T0 treatment, although there wasno significant difference in the amounts found inthe S1T0.5 treatment. Although the maximumamount of caryophyllene was observed in S0.5T0.5,but the difference of this treatment with S0T0.5and S1T0 treatments was not statistically signifi-cant (Figure 1).

The interaction between species × superabsor-

bent was not significant for all traits, while forspecies main factor it was significant at p< 0.01.Based on an acceptable amount of coefficient ofvariation (CV %), it can be concluded that non-significance of some parts of variation for essencecomponents sources is not due to the amount ofexperimental error.

The correlation between thymol with others wasnegatively significant, with the exception of a posi-tive correlation with caryophylene. In conclusion,thymol is the most important part of essential oilcomponent in Thymus.

ConclusionThe interaction between Thiobacillus and

superabsorbent on oil and essential oil yield wassignificantly greater for borneol and caryophyllene.Furthermore, Thymus vulgaris essential oil yieldwas higher than Thymus daenensis. Despite thefact that Thymus vulgaris is not native to Iran,its high value in the pharmaceutical, cosmetic,health and culture, food and export will encour-age its cultivation. In addition, the variance analy-sis of our data showed the amount of all compo-nents in T. vulgaris is much higher than T.

daenensis, with the exception of thymol andcaryophyllene. Hence, in the cultivation of thy-

mus for the production of essential oil componentsis recommended.

2.0

1.8

1.6

1.4

1.2

1.0

0.8

0.6

0.4


Table 6. Pearson’s correlation coefficients between some essential components of two species of thyme

Compound ααααα-Thujene ααααα-Pinene Camphene βββββ-Myrcene p-Cymene γγγγγ-Terpinene Linalool Borneol Thymol

α-Pinene 0.91**

Camphene 0.782** 0.848**

β-Myrcene 0.748** 0.781** 0.701**

p-Cymene 0.789** 0.798** 0.733** 0.932**

γ-Terpinene 0.76** 0.696** 0.655** 0.881** 0.874**

Linalool 0.635** 0.654** 0.7** 0.836** 0.812** 0.732**

Borneol 0.619** 0.691** 0.764** 0.634** 0.635** 0.546** 0.831**

Thymol -0.606** -0.641** -0.591** -0.790** -0.887** -0.816** -0.674** -0.437*

Caryophylene -0.761** 0.786** -0.669** -0.893** -0.892** -0.837** -0.859** -0.745** 0.733**

*, ** significant differences at p< 0.05 and p< 0.01 probability level, respectively

Pouneh Pouramini e

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P 21 (3) 2018 799 - 810 807

Figure 2. Mean comparisons of thymol under the interaction of species × Thiobacillus. V and Dpresent Thymus vulgaris and Thymus daenensis, respectively. Values with different letters aresignificantly different according to Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (p< 0.05)

Thym

ol (%

)

Table 7. Comparison interaction of species, superabsorbent and Thiobacillus

on borneol and caryophylene on Thymus vulgaris and Thymus daenensis

Interactions Caryophyllene [%] Borneol [%]

V × S0 × T0 0.9934 d 2.289 aV × S0 × T0.5 0.9528 d 1.301 bcd

V × S0.5 × T0 0.8876 d 1.281 bcd

V × S0.5 × T0.5 1.124 d 1.621 abc

V × S1 × T0 0.8859 d 1.278 bcd

V × S1 × T0.5 0.9458 d 1.849 ab

D × S0 × T0 2.351 c 1.081 cde

D × S0 × T0.5 3.112 bc 0.9007 cde

D × S0.5 × T0 2.82 c 0.9435 cde

D × S0.5 × T0.5 3.92 a 0.3738 eD × S1 × T0 3.715 ab 0.6984 de

D × S1 × T0.5 2.93 c 0.9215 cde

Treatment symbols: T0, 0.0 g Thiobacillus; T0.5, 0.5 g Thiobacillus;

S0, 0.0 g superabsorbent; S0.5, 0.5 g superabsorbent; S1, 1.0 g superabsorbent;V, Thymus vulgaris; D, Thymus daenensis. Values with different letters in a columnare significantly different according to Duncan’s Multiple Range Test (p< 0.05)

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effect of thiobacillus and superabsorbent on essential oil...

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