article · Notulae Botanicae Horti Agrobotanici Cluj-Napoca
Anise is a valuable medicinal plant utilised across the food, cosmetic, and therapeutic sectors. Water scarcity severely challenges its cultivation, yet the capacity of micronutrients to alleviate these stresses requires further investigation. A two-season trial evaluated the effects of foliar selenium sprays at concentrations of 1.0 and 2.0 mM on anise crops grown under full and deficit irrigation regimes. Foliar selenium substantially mitigated drought stress, preserving photosynthetic performance, relative water content, and cell membrane stability. The highest selenium concentration of 2.0 mM under water deficit stimulated major accumulations of protective osmolytes, notably soluble sugars, amino acids, and proline, while enhancing plant biomass. Crucially, selenium sprays boosted seed yield up to 1.72-fold under drought and enhanced irrigation water use efficiency. Selenium also altered oil composition, increasing L-linalool under deficit irrigation and anethole under full irrigation.
Anise is widely used in therapeutics, cosmetics, and foods, but expanding water scarcity threatens its production. Demonstrating that a targeted micronutrient spray can protect plant health, boost water use efficiency, and maintain essential oil quality offers valuable guidance for sustaining high-value medicinal crop production in arid and semi-arid farming environments.
This work informs commercial growers and agricultural input providers seeking practical methods to stabilise anise yields and oil quality in water-stressed environments. The intervention relies on foliar selenium spraying, presenting an applied and tested technique ready for on-farm validation and potential integration into standard crop management programmes for arid and semi-arid zones.
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Anise is one of the plants with therapeutic potential, which is classified among the most important medicinal plants with interesting biological effects. Its components could be perceived so as “natural” and “safe” alternatives to antibiotics as well as they are applied in different industries such as food and cosmetic purposes. Selenium (Se) is an essential micronutrient, however, its importance to improve oil yield and quality of anise has not been adequately investigated, specifically under drought. Therefore, two successive seasons were conducted to investigate the effect of selenium foliar application upon anise plants under drought stress. Selenium was applied at three different concentrations (0.0 1.0 and 2.0 mM denoted Se0, Se1 and Se2, respectively) along with two levels of crop evapotranspiration (ET): Full irrigation, 100% of ET (FI) and 60% of ET (DI). The promotive effect of combinations of DI × Se1 or Se2 (for Fv/Fm, RWC%, and MSI% in the first season) and DI × Se2 (for Fv/Fm, and MSI% in the second season) were as similar as FI × Se2. Compared to the counterpart control treatment (DI × Se0), the highest increases in total free amino acids (31.5 and 31.6%), total soluble sugars (84.2 and 86.4%) and free proline content (84.2 and 86.4%) were recorded with application of DI × Se2 practice in both seasons, respectively. Under DI, Se2 recorded the maximum values of root length, shoot fresh weight and shoot dry weight in the second season. Under drought, the increases in seed yield due to application of Se1 and Se2 amounted to 1.72 and 1.62 folds in the 1st season and 1.50 and 1.43 folds in 2nd one, respectively. The most effective practice for improving IWUE was Se1× DI in both seasons, followed by Se2 × DI. Based on the chromatographical detection, the maximum values of Anethole were recorded with FI × Se2 while L-Linalool has greatly increased with DI × Se2. In conclusion, the growers in arid and semi-arid zones are advised to use selenium (2.0 mM) in anise fertilization to mitigate the adverse impacts of drought, and keeping crop yield and quality.
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DOI: 10.15835/nbha51413437
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