Evaluation of Antioxidant Activity and Some Secondary Metabolites of Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea L.) in Response to Biological and Chemical Fertilizers

Purple coneflower (Echinacea pupurea L.) is an ornamental-medicinal plant belonging to Asteraceae family. It has long been used as an herbal medicine. In order to study the effects of biological and chemical fertilizers on quantitative and qualitative yields of purple coneflower, an experiment was conducted at Department of Horticultural Science and Landscape, University of Tehran. The trial was arranged based on a randomized complete block design, with eight treatments and three replications. Treatments were included control (no fertilizers), nitrogen-fixing, bacteria- Azospirillum lipoferum (AL), Azotobacter chrococum (AC), phosphorus solubilizing bacterium Pseudomonas fluorecens, (PF), Glomus intrradices inoculum (GI), the mixture of the three bacteria and the mixture of the three bacteria plus the mycorrhizal inoculum. According to the results of HPLC, Catechin content was high at herbage in both years. In addition, the best results have been taken from the AL and AC with the control. Caffeic acid, chlorogenic acid and Epicatechin contents were higher during the first year of the herbage, and control, AC and AL treatments gave high value. Ferulic acid was high in the herbage during the first year and generally high values were obtained from PF and GI treatments. Quercetin content was high in plant root during the first year with AC application.