The Effect of Fertilization and Mycorrhiza Inoculation on Yield Variables and Essential Oil Characteristics of Salvia officinalis L. Growing in the Greenhouse and at the Field

Common sage (Salvia officinalis L.) is one of the most valuable commercial medicinal and aromatic plants (MAP). It has served different treatments historically in folk medicine and has always been popular to use. This research was conducted to observe the effect of mycorrhiza infection and fertilization to the biomass and quality characteristics on common sage. The optimum N, P, K dosses and their combinations (NP, NK, PK, NPK) were applied to both +M (mycorrhiza infected) and –M (non mycorrhiza infected) plants. The research was carried out both in the greenhouse and the plants were transferred to the field. The field trial was established in randomized block design with tree replication at ALC, UMass and three harvests were recorded at the growing season in 2014. Yield parameters showed significance between –M and +M applications. The essential oil contents were extracted by vapor distillation, and the major components of the essential oils were determined as camphor, α-thujon, ß-thujon, α-humulene, viridiflorol and eucalyptol (1.8 cineole) by GC-Ms. The highest camphor was received from P (-M) and PK (+M) fertilization with 31.64% and 33.54%. And the highest α-thujon was recorded at PK (-M) and NK (+M) combinations with 27.51% and 34.24%, respectively.