Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Genetic Resources and Crop Evolution, cilt.73, sa.5, 2026 (SCI-Expanded, Scopus)
The genotype-level compositional stability of essential oil (EO) chemotype expression in basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) is critical for industrial quality assurance and may also be relevant for preliminary food safety screening, yet remains poorly characterised across the environmental variation encountered in production. This study characterises the environmental modulation of EO yield and chemotype composition in a pre-selected panel of 12 basil genotypes representing four chemotypes (linalool, estragole, citral, and methyl cinnamate) using a three-layer experimental design: (i) ecological variation across three contrasting Turkish locations (Bursa, Eskişehir, Tokat) over two years, (ii) ontogenetic variation across three developmental stages at Bursa, and (iii) seasonal variation between summer and autumn harvests at Tokat (144 unique EO profiles). EO yield was highest at Bursa (0.98 mL·100 g⁻1 dry weight). At Bursa, EO yield increased from pre-flowering to onset of flowering, whereas at Tokat, autumn harvests produced higher yields than summer harvests. Genotype R-10A, representing the estragole chemotype, showed very high genotype-specific compositional stability under the tested ecological conditions (Layer 1 CV = 2.8%), while genotype R-17, representing the citral chemotype (Layer 1 CV = 12.9%), and genotype R-23, representing the methyl cinnamate chemotype (20.0%), showed moderate to variable stability at the individual genotype level. Within the linalool chemotype, R-16 was the most stable genotype (SD = 5.6%). The results suggest that the observed stability patterns reflect a genotype-specific component within this panel, and that environment × harvest-stage interactions influence secondary metabolite accumulation within this genotype panel, with potential relevance for genotype-level selection and preliminary food safety screening under the tested conditions. These findings apply to the evaluated 12-genotype panel under the tested field conditions and should not be generalised to Turkish basil germplasm as a whole.