Medicinal Chemistry

Determination of Optimum Spacing and Harvesting Age of Citron Scented Gum (Eucalyptus citriodora H.) for Maximum Biomass and Essential Oil Yield at Wondo Genet, South Ethiopia

Abstract

Desta Fikadu Egata* and Wondimkun Dikir Desta

The experiment was conducted at Wondo Genet south Ethiopia for three years. The study was aimed for determination of optimum plant spacing
and harvesting age on E. citriodora. The treatment consists of three levels of harvesting ages and four levels of plant spacing. The character that
manifested for data collection is: plant height, leaf weight/plant stem weight/plant leaf to stem ratio, leaf and stem yield/ha, essential oil content
and essential oil yield/ha were collected. The whole plant had been cut using sharp saw at 20 cm height above the ground and essential oil was
extracted from the leaf part. The results of the study revealed that harvesting age had very highly significant effect on plant height, fresh leaf to
stem ratio, essential oil content and essential oil yield/hectare. Spacing had a very high significant effect on fresh leaf yield/hectare and fresh
stem/hectare. The interaction effect of spacing and harvesting age had significant effect on essential oil content. The highest leaf weight/pant was
obtained with spacing of 1.5 m and 2 m between plants and raw respectively. Maximum fresh leaf yield/hectare was obtained with narrower spacing
(1.5 m between plant and row) and the highest essential oil yield/hectare was obtained when the plant harvested at 10 months after transplanting
but it was not significantly different with harvesting age at 9 months after transplanting. Based on the overall result use of plant spacing 1.5 × 2 m
and 9 to 10 MATS were recommended for citron scented for Wondo Genet and its vicinity.