Influence of NPK fertilization on the yield of essential oil of Eucalyptus camaldulensis

Abstract

Eucalyptus camaldulensis is a species of eucalyptus with potential for establishment of planted forests in the savannah area of Roraima. Little is known about the appropriate management of E. camaldulensis in the conditions of the savannah of Roraima, and for this reason, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the effects of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) in the production of essential oil of the species. The experiment was conducted in ½ 43 fractional factorial design, that evaluated four doses of N (0, 50, 100, 200 kg ha-1), P (0, 30, 60, 120 kg ha-1) and K (0, 50, 100, 200 kg ha-1). One year after planting, the yield of essential oil was determined in fresh leaves, with extraction performed by the method of hydrodistillation in Clevenger type system. The yield of essential oil was changed mainly due to fertilization, increasing from 0.43 to 0.62% as it increased the doses of P. These values were within the range of 0.3 to 2.8% in the literature to yield essential oil in fresh leaves of E. camaldulensis. The highest oil yield was observed with a dose of 120 kg ha-1 phosphorus.

Keywords

• primary macronutrients
• no-timber forest products
• secondary metabolites
• cineole
• eucalyptus