Correlation studies among soil properties, climatic conditions and essential oil constituents of <em>Origanum vulgare </em>L. from Central Himalaya, India

Abstract

Environmental conditions and soil properties plays important role to regulate the plant metabolism. Considering the importance of essential oil of Origanum vulgare L., this study was done to understand the oil profile with microclimatic conditions and soil properties in wild conditions. The plant materials were collected from ten sites of Uttarakhand, India with their soil samples. Correlation was established among essential oil major constituents, micro and macronutrients, microclimatic conditions, physical properties of soil by using Microsoft Excel XP. Available nitrogen in soil was positively correlated with linalool, bornyl acetate, (E)-caryophyllene, germacrene D and β-bisabolene while negatively correlated with thymol. Thymol and caryophyllene oxide were found to be positively correlated with available potassium. Available Zn was positively correlated with β-bisabolene. Total iron (Fe) present in the soil was found to be positively correlated with total p-cymene and γ-terpinene in the oils. pH of soil was found to be negatively correlated with thymol and positively correlated with elemol. Percent organic carbon (OC%) was negatively correlated with p-cymene, (E)-ocimene and caryophyllene oxide. In our study water holding capacity is positively correlated with caryophyllene oxide. The results of present study indicate the significant role of macro and micronutrients and other soil properties on the essential oil composition.