Elevated CO2and Temperature Effect on Essential Oil Content and Composition ofValeriana jatamansiJones. with Organic Manure Application in a Western Himalayan Region

Valeriana jatamansi is an important Himalayan medicinal and aromatic herb. An experiment was conducted to study the effect of environmental conditions and vermicompost at free air CO2 enrichment (FACE) and free air temperature increase (FATI) facilities of CSIR-Institute of Himalayan Bioresource Technology, Palampur, India during 2013-2015. Experiment comprised of six treatments with two factors, viz., three levels of environmental conditions viz., ambient conditions (390 μmol mol-1), elevated CO2 (550±50 μmol mol-1) and elevated temperature (2.5±0.5°C above ambient) and two levels of vermicompost (control and with vermicompost). Experiments were laid out in completely randomized design (CRD) with five replications. Essential oil was obtained from rhizomes and roots of V. jatamansi after 12 months of exposure to elevated CO2 and temperature by hydrodistillation in a Clevenger type apparatus for 6 h. Elevated CO2 enhanced the essential oil content by 17.7 % and elevated temperature decreased by 4....