The Effect of Natural Essential Oil Carvacrol and Some Growth Regulators on Vase Life of Cut Flowers of Alstroemeria cv. Bridal

The abscission of Alstroemeria petals is the serious problem at the industry of cut flowers of this plant. In this study, cut Alstroemeria cv. Bridal flowers were pulsed with solutions containing natural essential oil carvacrol, gibberellic acid and benzyladenine (50 and 100 mg L-1), -5-sulfosalicylic acid (1 and 1.5 mM) and sucrose (5 and 10%) for 24 hours. The distilled water was used as control. After treatment, the flowers were placed in distilled water, and maintained at temperature of 22±2oC, 70±5% relative humidity, and 15 mmol m-2 s-1 light intensity 12 hours per day. The results showed that 50 and 100 mg L-1 gibberellic acid could significantly delay flower senescence with 3.33 and 3 days, respectively as compared to the other treatments. The highest petal anthocyanin content was found at gibberellic acid (50 and 100 mg L-1), benzyladenine (100 mg L-1) and 5-sulfosalicylic acid (1.5 mM) than other treatments. Conversely, lipid peroxidation content and catalase enzyme activity was lower in these treatments as compared to the control. The protein content of gibberellic acid (50 and 100 mg L-1) pulse treated flowers was higher than other treatments. In contrast, the flowers treated with 100 mg L-1 gibberellic acid showed the lowest peroxidase enzyme activity. Overall, the vase life of Alstroemeria cut flowers cv. Bridal increased in both gibberellic acid treatments (50 and 100 mg L-1) than other studied solutions.