Seed yield, oil content and fatty acid composition of Oenothera biennis L. affected by harvest date and harvest method

Evening primrose (Oenothera biennis L.) has become a subject of agricultural interest because of the potential market for γ-linolenic acid, which is useful in medicine and nutrition. O. biennis has good potential for agricultural production, but due to its indeterminate growth it can not be harvested at once as seed are formed and ripened heterogeneously. As a result there is high seed wastage due to shattering. Field experiments were carried out to verify the influence of the harvest time (early, middle and late) and harvest method (conventional harvest method, defoliation by herbicide and defoliation by flame) on the seed yield, seed yield components, oil content, fatty acid composition and protein content of the O. biennis L. cv. “Anothera”. From the results of the three harvest times in the autumn-sown experiment, a significant influence on seed yield was observed in the late harvest. Of all the three harvest times in the spring experiments, not showed any significant influence on seed yield. However, the harvest method did produce a significant influence on seed yield in the first spring experiment. Different harvest times did not have significant influence on oil content except the second spring trial. The harvest method led to significant differences on the oil content when the plants were sown in autumn. In the second spring experiment seed protein content was significantly influenced by harvest time. In all experiments, the content of γ-linolenic acid (GLA) was influenced by harvest time. Based on obtained results, it can be concluded that 75-80 and 100 days after flowering could be recommended as harvest times for spring and autumn-sown O. biennis L. cv. “Anothera” in Germany, respectively. Desiccation as a harvest technique in some cases tended to influence on seed yield, PDM, SDM, oil content, stearic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid. Defoliation by herbicide was more effective than those of flame in our experiments.