Morphological, Agronomical and Phytochemical Changes in Borage (Borago officinalis L.) under Biological and Chemical Fertilizers Application

Background : Borage is a valuable medicinal plant and its production to meet the needs of the pharmaceutical industry has a high value. Thus, the study of bio-fertilizers effect on its qualitative and quantitative yield seems to be necessary. Objective : To determine the effects of nitrogen and phosphorus biofertilizers on morphological, agronomical and phytochemical characters of borage and feasibility of replacing chemical fertilizers with biological fertilizers. Methods : This experiment was done in the Research farm of ACECR, Institute of Medicinal Plants along 2009 –2010 on the base of factorial experiment in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The treatments combination was three levels of biofertilizers (Control or no applying fertilizer, Nitroxin and Bio- Phosphor and three levels of chemical fertilizers (0, 50 and 100 percent of the nutritional needs of the farm). Results: The biological and chemical fertilizers as well as their interactions had significant effects on flower number, grain yield and content of total phenol, oil and γ- linolenic acid. The chemical and biological fertilizers significantly increased the morphological and agronomical characters. Although the oil and γ-linolenic acid content significantly decreased with application of chemical fertilizer, the application of bio-fertilizers significantly increased the γ-linolenic acid content. Conclusion : Although the qualitative yield decreased with consumption of chemical fertilizers, the borage performance in respect of all studied traits increased with application of bio-fertilizers. Therefore, the biofertilizers can be an alternative to replacing chemical fertilizers for increasing borage production which is in order to minimize of environmental pollution and sustainable agriculture