Oil and Flower Production in Rosa damascena trigintipetala Dieck under Salinity Stress in Taif Region, Saudi Arabia

Abstract

The flower industry depends on oil and fragrance, which is addressed in the current work. Different concentrations of NaCl (0, 250, 500, 1000, and 1500 ppm) were applied to Taif rose plants (Rosa damascena var. trigintipetala Dieck) to evaluate their effects on growth and essential oil content. Results clearly indicated the highest survival percentage (98.3%) was seen in untreated plants compared to plants under salinity stress. Moreover, increasing the NaCl levels induced an adverse effect on the growth parameters of Taif rose plants, while some essential oil contents were increased to the maximum degree of their tolerance to salinity stress. The extracted essential oils were analyzed using GC/MS. The essential oils of Taif rose plants treated with 500 ppm NaCl recorded the highest values of citronellol, geraniol and phenylethyl alcohol contents (16.56, 8.67 and 9.87%), respectively. NaCl at 250 ppm produced the highest values of heneicosane (13.12%), and then decreased to the lowest value (7.79%) with the increase of NaCl to 1500 NaCl, compared to the control and other NaCl levels. The current results could highlight the impact of salinity stress on Rosa damascena Miller var. trigintipetala Dieck for better economic and industrial applications.