Luciana Marques de Carvalho

Disponibilidade de água no solo e crescimento de artemísia

ABSTRACT Soil water availability and growth of feverfew. Feverfew plants ( Tanacetum parthenium L. Schultz-Bip) werecropped in pots containing substratum maintained at 90%, 70% and50% of field capacity. The plants were evaluated for the height,accumulation of fresh mass in the aerial part, relative chlorophylland proline content. The relative chlorophyll content was estimatedusing a portable chlorophyll meter (SPAD-502), while the prolinecontent was estimated by colorimetry. Reductions of 16% in theheight and of 22,5% in the accumulation of fresh mass in the aerialpart of the plants grown at 50% of field capacity were verified, beingcompared with the average of the plants grown at 90% of fieldcapacity. The relative chlorophyll content in the expanded leaves, inany of substratum water levels, decreased with the time, indicatingtendency to senescence of the leaves. Plants maintained at 50% offield capacity presented about 30% more chlorophyll, compared toplants at 90% of field capacity, during the whole accompanied time.Also, the proline content was higher, indicating osmotic adjustmentstress due to water deficiency. The largest chlorophyll and prolineaccumulation in the expanded leaves of the plants under waterdeficiency can be used as a stress indicative.

Yield of tomato in monocrop and intercropping with aromatics plants

Tomato is mainly cultivated in monocrops, by intensive use of chemical products. It is an activity with economic, social and environmental risks. The intercropping has been used as a form to reduce these risks. In this work the yield of tomato in sole crop and intercropping with Foeniculum vulgare, Mentha piperita, Ocimum basilicum and Ruta graveolens was evaluated. The monocrop of tomato and its intercropping was evaluated with aromatic plants in a complete randomized design, with five treatments and four blocks. We evaluated height, canopy area, production, yield and land equivalent ratio. On the population density adopted, the F. vulgare (fennel) presented greater height and canopy area, and caused significant reduction on total production of tomato, from 12.23 kg, in monocrop, to 7.88 kg, when intercropped with fennel. However, intercropping with fennel contributed to a lesser loose caused by fruits borer (24%). The greatest loose caused by fruits borer occurred in monocropping and in intercropping with M. piperita (peppermint). Intercropping with Ruta graveolens (rue) resulted significant increase of commercial production of fruits, about 26%. The relative yield of tomato was greater in intercropping with rue (13.6 t ha-1), followed by intercropping with peppermint (9.8 t ha-1) and with O. basilicum (basil) (9.1 t ha-1), and lesser on intercropping with fennel (6.4 t ha-1). These results showed that the intercropping with rue was more advantageous than others producing more fruits. Among the studied aromatic plants, basil presented the highest yield (96.5 t ha-1). The tomato intercropping with aromatic cultures permits better use of land and higher yield, mainly when intercropping with rue. All aromatics plants evaluated represent an alternative source of gain.

Aspectos morfofisiológicos das cultivares de cafeeiro Catuaí-Vermelho e Conilon

n The objective of this work was to compare plants of the Coffea arabica†L. cv.†CatuaI- Vermelho and C.†canephora Pierre cv.†Conilon species in relation to the net photosynthesis rate and aspects of leaf anatomy. Coffea canephora plants presented higher net photosynthetic rate, transpiratory rate and leaf conductance rate than C.†arabica plants, which presented smaller photochemical capacity of photosystem†I, and shorter and thicker leaves than C.†canephora. Both species differed also in rela- tionship to the type, number and dimensions of stomata in the leaf epiderm: they are paracytics in C.†arabica and actinocytics in C.†canephora, and they are larger, but in smaller number in C.†arabica.

Crescimento e metabolismo em artemísia em função do nível de irradiância

Feverfew [Tanacetum parthenium (L.) Schultz-Bip.] is a strongly aromatic medicinal plant, whose active principle is the sesquiterpene lactone parthenolide. Irradiance ranks among the most important factors that affect growth of medicinal plants. The effect of three irradiance levels (730, 523 and 382 µmol of fotons m-2 s-1) were assessed on feverfew plants height, leaf area, and leaf number, as well as on the contents of sugar, starch, and parthenolide. Plants grew on full sunshine and under 30 and 50% of irradiance reduction, for 105 days. Irradiance was controlled by shadowing plants with a black polyethylene screen. Reduction on irradiance increased plant height and total leaf area, but had no effect on leaf number. A reduction in sugar and starch contents in association with shadowing was observed. Nevertheless, shadowing did not affect significantly the parthenolide content.