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Phytotechnics and Mineral Nutrition of Vegetables and Medicinal Plants in...
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Phytotechnics and Mineral Nutrition of Vegetables and Medicinal Plants in Different Cultivation Systems

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Horticultural Science and Ornamental Plants".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 September 2025 | Viewed by 1096

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jose Magno Queiroz Luz

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Agrarian Sciences, Federal University of Uberlândia, Uberlândia 38410-337, Brazil
Interests: plant development; fertilizer; genetics
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Renata Castoldi

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Institute of Agrarian Sciences, Federal University of Uberlândia, Monte Carmelo 38500-000, Brazil
Interests: management and cultural treatments of vegetables; vegetables breeding; vegetables diseases

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The production of vegetables and medicinal plants is often carried out under intensive production systems that absorb large amounts of human resources and inputs. These systems, as in large plantations, must enable high productivity to meet consumer market demand without reducing product quality. Therefore, it is necessary to adopt technologies to improve the productivity and quality of these horticultural crops, including fertilization, spacing, training, and cultivation location, among others. This Special Issue of Plants will highlight the phytotechnics and mineral nutrition of vegetables and medicinal plants in different cultivation systems.

Dr. Jose Magno Queiroz Luz
Prof. Dr. Renata Castoldi
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • chemical fertilizer
  • organic fertilizer
  • protected cultivation
  • cultural management and treatments
  • short-cycle plants

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Further information on MDPI's Special Issue policies can be found here.

Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 4770 KiB  
Article
Application of Salicylic Acid Improves the Production of Medicinal Components in Mucuna macrocarpa Wall by Regulating Endogenous Hormone and Nutrient Balance
by Yulan Hua, Xianyuan Pan, Li Tian, Yuanyuan Xu, Mei Yang and Rongyan Deng
Plants 2025, 14(7), 1023; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14071023 - 25 Mar 2025
Viewed by 319
Abstract
The Mucuna macrocarpa Wall, a traditional Chinese medicinal plant, exhibits significant cultivation-dependent variations in the accumulation and yield of its medicinal components. Salicylic acid (SA) has demonstrated the potential to regulate plant growth, which can be strategically used to enhance medicinal yield, offering [...] Read more.
The Mucuna macrocarpa Wall, a traditional Chinese medicinal plant, exhibits significant cultivation-dependent variations in the accumulation and yield of its medicinal components. Salicylic acid (SA) has demonstrated the potential to regulate plant growth, which can be strategically used to enhance medicinal yield, offering a promising approach for high-yield cultivation in medicinal plants. This study aimed to investigate the changes in the medicinal components of Mucuna macrocarpa seedlings (4 months old) at different concentrations of SA (0, 0.1, 0.5, 0.9, and 1.3 mM) in a pot experiment. The results indicate that SA significantly increased the basal diameter (BD) by 2.9% to 20.61% and the total biomass (TB) by 14.28% to 48.57%. Notably, SA treatments resulted in alterations in the endogenous hormone content, including indole-3-acetic acid (IAA), abscisic acid (ABA), gibberellin A3 (GA3), and trans-zeatin-riboside (ZR), and the balance in leaves. SA regulated the content and balance of nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), and potassium (K) in all organs, and K content and K: P in roots, stems, and leaves was significantly higher than that of the control under 0.9 mM SA treatment. Crucially, SA significantly enhanced the content of bioactive compounds. The total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) in stems peaked at 0.9 mM (14.89 mg·g−1 and 3.73 mg·g−1, respectively), which were 11.87% and 11.68% higher than those in the control. Moreover, compared to the control, SA treatments increased total phenolic production by 20.00% to 61.45% and total flavonoid production by 3.89% to 90.56%. In addition, 0.9 mM SA was found to be more effective than other treatments for increasing total phenolic and d total flavonoid content. In summary, this study investigated the effect of SA as an eco-friendly elicitor to improve the total phenolic and total flavonoid production of Mucuna macrocarpa. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phytotechnics and Mineral Nutrition of Vegetables and Medicinal Plants in Different Cultivation Systems)
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17 pages, 284 KiB  
Article
Organo-Mineral Fertilizer Improves Ocimum basilicum Yield and Essential Oil
by Roberta Camargos de Oliveira, Mércia Freitas Alves, José Magno Queiroz Luz, Arie Fitzgerald Blank, Daniela Aparecida de Castro Nizio, Paulo César de Lima Nogueira, Sérgio Macedo Silva and Renata Castoldi
Plants 2025, 14(7), 997; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants14070997 - 22 Mar 2025
Viewed by 374
Abstract
The production of Ocimum basilicum (basil) crop depends upon the availability of all nutrients in the soil solution. There is a lack of information about its performance, at tropical conditions, using new fertilizer formulations, such as organo-mineral fertilizers, mainly under protected cultivation. These [...] Read more.
The production of Ocimum basilicum (basil) crop depends upon the availability of all nutrients in the soil solution. There is a lack of information about its performance, at tropical conditions, using new fertilizer formulations, such as organo-mineral fertilizers, mainly under protected cultivation. These types of fertilizers combine benefits of the main fertilizers used in agriculture (organic and chemical). Therefore, organo-mineral fertilizers enhance soil health, provide a balanced nutrient supply, improve crop yields and quality. and promote environmental sustainability, making them a cost-effective and eco-friendly solution for sustainable crop production. This work aimed to evaluate the biomass and essential oil of basil varieties, with organo-mineral fertilization in different agricultural systems. Each experiment was conducted in a randomized block design, with three replications in a 2 × 4 factorial scheme, being two varieties of basil (“Sweet Dani” and “Cinnamon”) and four fertilizers: organo-mineral source, mineral source, organic source and the natural fertility of the soil. The evaluated characteristics were plant height, fresh biomass of plants, content, yield and the chemical composition of the essential oil. The organo-mineral sources of fertilizer provide better values for fresh biomass (average of 1175.90 and 1032.83 g per plant via greenhouse cultivation and field cultivation, respectively), essential oil yield (14.57 and 11.89 g per plant via greenhouse cultivation and field cultivation, respectively) and the dominant compounds for both cultivars of O. basilicum. Protected cultivation is the better environmental condition for obtaining the highest performance of O. basilicum cultivars about biomass and essential oil. The content of essential oil is not affected by the agricultural systems (greenhouse and field). The major compounds of essential oil under Brazilian crop conditions are Linalol and (E)-mehyl cinnamate in “Cinnamon” and neral and geranial (citral) in “Sweet Dani”. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Phytotechnics and Mineral Nutrition of Vegetables and Medicinal Plants in Different Cultivation Systems)
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