Evaluation of Some Chamomile Cultivars Introduced and Adapted in Egypt

Abstract The Egyptian chamomile has a good reputation in the export markets due to hand pick of the flower heads and application of organic farming system. However, in the last decade exports of chamomile faced some problems due to inconsistency with the required oil quality. Accordingly, a long term program was initiated for quality improvement of chamomile grown in Egypt. This approach depended on a selection program within the local variety as well as introduction of new sources from other countries to diversify the available product of chamomile in Egypt. This investigation was carried out during two successive seasons to evaluate the growth, productivity and oil quality of four cultivars of chamomile grown in three different locations in Egypt. The used cultivars were; Local (the type locally grown for several decades), Local Improved (resulted from selection program for 6 years), Bode Gold (introduced from Germany) and Syrian (introduced from Syria). The obtained result revealed that the Bode Gold t...