Phenological and agronomical evaluation of chamomile in Mediterranean environments

Chamomile (Chamomilla recutita (L.) Rausch.) is an annual crop, known worldwide as one of the major medicinal herbs. Its flower heads are reported in the official Pharmacopoeia of 26 countries. In order to evaluate the suitability of chamomile to a low-input field cropping management into a semiarid Mediterranean environment, a long-term research activity has been carried out in the experimental farm “Sparacia” (Cammarata – AG – Sicily); hereby we report the results obtained on plants grown in self-seeded experimental plots in 2007/08. Plants development was observed from November 2007 up to (visually assessed) flowers appearance. Blooming started in middle February, and in middle April (after 60 dd from the onset of flowering, the plants were collected. All flowers of 10 sample plants were sorted according to their stages of development, namely: I - buds; II – ligulate fl. developed; III – tubulate fl. more or less opened; IV – decaying. The numerical proportion of such flower stages was used to calculate the blossom index (BI), that in our collection time averaged a value of 0.23. The average BI originated from strongly different individual values, but most flowers were belonging to the stage III (23 flower heads per plant), in which essential oil content was stated to be the highest. In our trial, chamomile has confirmed a good aptitude to self-seeding, expressing a good yield level, even in lack of significant technical inputs.