Cattle Manure Influences Plant Yield, Antioxidant Capacity and Essential Oil Quality of Sahandi Savory (Satureja sahendica Bornm.) under Different Plant Densities

Sahandi savory (Satureja sahendica Bornm.) is a medicinally endemic plant, which may be affected by organic fertilizers and cultivated methods. To investigate the effect of cattle manure (30 ton/ha) as organic fertilizers and plant density (high plant density: 80000, medium plant density: 40000, and low plant density: 26666 plan ha(-1)), an experiment was carried out as split plot with three replications during 2017 and 2018 on plant yield, total phenol content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), essential oil (EO) yield and composition of Sahandi savory in the rainfed condition. Fresh weigh yield (FWY) and dry weight yield (DWY) increased under manure application at high/medium plant density in second year. The highest TPC and TFC were observed with manure application at high plant density in 2018. The highest DPPH scavenging activity was observed at high plant density under manure application in second year. In second year under manure application, medium and high plant densities increased EO yield by 44% and 35% compared to low plant density. The GC and GC/MS analysis showed that the main constitutes of Sahandi savory EO were p-cymene (36.03-56.37%), thymol (21.59-32.26%) and gamma-terpinene (6.21-22.01%), representing different concentrations by using the organic fertilizers and plant densities. To sum up, the use of cattle manure and high plant density can result in higher plant production.