الفهرس 
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Abstract
This current research was carried out in the Experimental Station and Laboratory of the Veget. and Flori. Department, Fac. of Agric., Mansoura Univ. during two successive seasons of 2002 / 2003 and 3003 / 2004. The present study has been established to introduce and acclimatize lemon balm plant in Egypt as a new and interesting medicinal and aromatic plant, to study the effect of chemical fertilizer (ammonium nitrate 33.5 % N) and biofertilizers (Rhizobactrien, Nitrobien and Microbien) and their interactions on vegetative growth, herb yield, essential oil production and its constituents and chemical composition of herb.
Melissa officinalis, L. commonly Known as balm, lemon balm, bee balm and citronmilissa, belongs to the Fam. Lamiaceae (Labiatae) grows wild in the Mediterranean region for over 2000 years however. The dried herb has being offered on the market originated from cultivated plants. It is now cultivated in many countries for its herb and essential oil. The cleaned and dried leaves are sold in the markets at the pharmaceutical trade, and to herbalists. Drug has many therapeutical characters such as carminative diaphoretic, antispasmodic while, the essential oil is one of the most finest and expensive oil in the perfumery industry.
Fertilization treatments:-
- Control (without fertilizer)
- Chemical nitrogen fertilizer (50, 75 and 100 kg N / fad.)
- Biofertilizers (Rhizobactrien, Nitrobien and Microbien 4 kg / fad. of each one)
- Ammonium nitrate (50, 75 and 100 kg N / fad. + Rhizobactrien)
- Ammonium nitrate (50, 75 and 100 kg N / fad. + Nitrobien)
- Ammonium nitrate (50, 75 and 100 kg N / fad. + Microbien)
The obtained results were summarized as follows:-
1- Effect on vegetative growth:-
- All fertilizers treatments significantly increased plant height, number of branches / plant and fresh and dry weight of herb / plant as compared to the control treatmen in both seasons.
- The highest significantly augmentation was resulted from the interaction between chemical and bio nitrogen fertilizer at 100 kg N / fad. + Nitrobien.
- All fertilizer treatments of chemical, bio nitrogen fertilizers and their interactions increased herb yield / fad. in both seasons. The highest augmentation of the herb yield was resulted from of plants treated with 100 kg N / fad. + Nitrobien.
2- Effect on essential oil percentage, content and its components:-
- All chemical and bio nitrogen fertilizer treatments and their interaction significantly increased oil percentage, oil yield when compared with the control in both seasons.
- G.L.C. separation of the essential oil revealed nine identified components (citronellol, geraniol, citral, carophyllen, geranyl acetate, geranial, octanal, neral and β-carophyllen). The haupt components of the essential oil were citral and geraniol.
- The plants treated with 100 kg N / fad. + Nitrobien gave the highest citral percentage while, the plants treated with 50 kg N / fad. + Microbien gave the best geraniol percentage when compared with control treatment.
3-Effect on chemical constituent of herb:-
- The chemical, bio nitrogen fertilizers and their interaction significantly increased the total carbohydrates, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium percentages in lemon balm herb.
- The plants treated with 100 kg N / fad.+ Nitrobien produced the highest total carbohydrates, nitrogen and potassium percentages in both seasons while, plants treated with 75 kg N / fad. + Microbien in the first season and 75 kg N / fad. + Nitrobien in the second season gave the highest phosphorus percentage.
According to the results of th present study, it could be concluded that, the best herb yield of Melissa officinalis, L. plants containing the highest essential oil percentage and the main component (citral) was obtained from the interaction between the chemical fertilizer (100 kg N / fad.) and the biofertilizer Nitrobien (4 kg / fad.).