ABSTRACT
This study aimed to evaluate the content, yield and chemical composition of the essential oil of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) plants subjected to NaCl saline stress. The experiment was carried out in a greenhouse, in a completely randomized design, with 5 (five) NaCl treatments added to the irrigation water (0.01 - control, T1; 1.2 - T2; 2.3 - T3; 3.4 - T4 and 4.5 dS m-1 - T5, corresponding respectively to 0.1; 12.0; 23.0; 34.0 and 45.0 mM) and 4 (four) replicates. At 55 days after transplanting, plants were harvested, put in paper bags and taken to a forced-air oven at 45 ºC for 10 days, until reaching constant mass. After drying, the dry biomass of the aerial part was weighed, mixed, grinded in an electric blade grinder and later taken to an essential oil extraction so that its content, yield and chemical composition could be analyzed. The increase of NaCl stress did not change neither the content nor the chemical composition of the essential oil, whose yield was reduced by 12.93% for each unit increase in the salinity level. The methyl cinnamate, with an average content of 55%, and the methyl chavicol, with 12%, were the main compounds identified in the sweet basil plants.
Keywords
salinity; Ocimum basilicum L.; secondary metabolism
