Essential oil content of basil under controlled water deficit during pre-harvesting

Abstract

The intensity of water deficit influences directly the essential oil content for medicinal and aromatics plants, such as basil. In this context, the objective of this study was to quantify the effect of different levels of controlled water deficit before harvest on basil plants. The experiment was performed during 347 days, using the fully randomized factorial design (5x3) with five treatments defined by the irrigation suppression and three harvests, with five replications each treatment. The pre harvest irrigation suppression promoted an increase of essential oil content for basil plants.