Soilless cultivation of some medicinal and aromatic herb plants under the conditions of Arabian Gulf region

Abstract

Production of medicinal/aromatic (MA) herb plants to meet the ever increasingdemand for these plants is a major challenge facing countries in arid and semiarid regions whichare characterized by limited water and land resources. Recently, soilless cultivation of medicinalplants has gained a great attention in both protected environment and outdoor conditions, due tomany advantages like potential for higher yields and quality, cleaner products, year roundproduction, with minimized use of water in comparison to conventional soil-based cultivation.The objectives of this study were to introduce five highly valued MA crops (sage, Germanchamomile, Jordanian chamomile, thyme and mint) into Arabian Gulf region. As the region ischaracterized by harsh environment, fragile ecosystems and limited water resources and arablelands, and these crops are native to Mediterranean climates and are not being grown in Gulfregion, therefore, these crops were cultivated using re-circulating soilless system, and theirgrowth was evaluated and yield was compared to soil-based yields. Results of this researchshowed that all studied crops were well adapted to the soilless system and outyielded the soilcultivated by 264, 313, 220, 247, and 243%, of herbal biomass for sage, German and Jordanianchamomiles, thyme and mint, respectively with much less water use (up to 70% save). Floweryields of soilless grown German and Jordanian chamomile outyielded the soil cultivated by 199and 334%m respectively. Results suggest that introduction of these crops into Gulf region wassuccessful especially with using soilless technology with high water saving as well as a variety ofother important herbaceous medicinal plants.