Effect of densities of planting on yield and essential oil components of Fennel (Foeniculum vulgare Mill Var. Soroksary)

Abstract

In order to study the effect of different densities of planting on yield and essential oil components of Fennel
(Foeniculum vulgare Mill Var. Soroksary), an experiment was carried out in college of agriculture Karaj at 2008.
Experiment was conducted based on completely randomized block design with three replication and five plant densities.
Five plants spaces were 10, 15, 20, 25 and 30cm on the row. The distance between rows in all treatments was 40cm.
The essential oil extracted by water distilled method from seeds and essential oil was analyzed by gas chromatography
(GC). The higher essential oil percentage (% 3.53) was obtained with the lowest densities of planting.The higher
percentage of anethole (%83.07), estragol (%3.47), fenchone (%8.04), p-cymene (%4.45), alpha-terpinene (%0.54),
sabinene (%0.51), and alpha-Pinene (%0.48) were obtained with space between plants 25, 10, 20, 20, 15, 20, and 25cm,
respectively.