Effect of biofertilizers and animal manure on morphophysiological characteristics and amount of coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.) essential oil under drought stress conditions

To investigate the effect of animal manure and nitroxin application on drought-affected coriander, an experiment was designed and conducted in the research greenhouse of the Faculty of Agriculture, Ferdowsi University of Mashhad. This experiment was performed as a three-factor full factorial design with three replications. The first factor includes the type of manure (0, 5, and 10 tons per hectare), the second factor is nitroxin biofertilizer (0, 0.5, and 1) and the third factor was drought stress at four levels (100, 75, 50, and 25% of field capacity). The results showed that drought stress was reduced the fresh and dry plant weight, fresh and dry weight of roots, plant height, Stem length, leaf comparative juice content and leaf chlorophyll content compared to the controlled. Some measured traits such as sugar, phenol, essential oil percentage, and essential oil yield increased due to drought stress compared to the control. In most traits, usage of animal manure under drought stress conditions improved the adverse effects of drought stress on coriander. Also, Nitroxin biofertilizer could improve the yield of coriander under drought stress. Besides, the simultaneous use of biofertilizer and nitroxin was effective in improving the measured traits in the plant. Animal manure and nitroxin biofertilizer were able to improve most of the morphological and physiological traits measured in coriander under stress conditions and cause better plant growth in these conditions. It seems that the use of this animal manure (10 tons per hectare) and nitroxin (1 mM) in drought stress conditions have a significant effect on plant growth and have the ability to balance stress conditions and even overcome them.