This experiment was carried out in the Universidade Federal de Mato Grosso do Sul, Mato Grosso State, Brazil, from April to September 2000, on a dystrorthox soil, clay texture. The use of semidecomposed chicken manure, morphological characteristics of plant populations, yield and essential oil quality of chamomile capitula cv. 'Mandirituba' were evaluated. The evaluated treatments, which combined, respectively, plant spacing (m) and levels of chicken manure (kg m-2) were: 0.16 and 1.20; 0.24 and 1.20; 0.16 and 2.80; 0.24 and 2.80; 0.20 and 2.00; 0.11 and 1.20; 0.29 and 2.80; 0.16 and 0.20 and 0.24 and 3.80, arranged in a randomized block design with four replications. Evaluated characteristics were plant height, number and height and diameter of capitula; fresh and dry matter of capitula and qualitative analysis of capitula essential oil. Maximum average height of 'Mandirituba' chamomile plants was 0,61 m, being considered as small-sized plants. There was no significant effect of spacing among plants/chicken manure level interaction on evaluated characteristics. Production of capitula was more intensively influenced by spacing among plants than by chicken manure. The smallest space resulted in the highest number of capitula (56,573,000 ha-1) and in the highest amount of dry matter production (1,08 kg ha-1). Heights (0.71 to 0.81 cm at 100 days and 0.68 to 0.71 cm at 116 days after transplant), diameter (1.96 to 2.13 cm at 100 days and 1.83 to 1.91 cm at 116 days after transplant) and average mass per capitulum (0.12 g) were not influenced significantly by studied treatments. The average dry matter production of capitula (800 kg ha-1) was higher than conventional Brazilian average (500 kg ha-1). Essential oil samples extracted from capitula from the nine treatments showed intense blue color and characteristic fragrance, indicating the good quality of the oil.
Chamomilla recutita sin. Matricaria chamomilla; Asteraceae; organic residue; quality control; CCD in gel silica
