Effects of irrigation regimes and fertilizer on oil percent and fatty acid composition ‎leaf and seed purslane (Portulaca oleraceae L.)‎

In order to evaluate, the effects of different irrigation and fertilizer treatments on oil percent and fatty acid composition in purslane, a split plot experiment based on randomized complete block design with three replications on Zabol climate conditions was conducted. The treatment including three levels of irrigation (80, 60 and 40 % of FWC) as main factor and five levels of fertilizer treatments consist of: Control (without fertilizer), Cow manure (20 T/ha), Vermicompost (15 T/ha), Urea (150 kg/ha) and NPK (100 kg/ha) that as subplots was applied. During the growth period, the soil moisture was measured by TDR. The results showed that, different irrigation regimes, fertilizer and their interaction had significant effect on oil percent in leave (before and after flowering stage) and seed of purslane. Although, with the reduction of water consumption, and the drought stress occurrence, the percentage of oil was decreased, but application of organic fertilizers, especially vermicompost, at high levels of stress, the adverse effects of drought stress was reduced, Gas chromatogram (GC) showed that, 11 fatty acid components in oil of purslane was detected. Linolenic acid involved 40 and 60% of total fatty acid contents of leave and seed oil, respectively. Therefore, organic fertilizer application can save much water for the most sensitive stage of growth and oil production of purslane in drought stress conditions.