Changes in growth and essential oil composition of sweet basil in response of salinity stress and superabsorbents application
Introduction
Salinity is one of the major abiotic stresses that can reduce plant production. The expansion of saline areas has significantly increased. Based on severity and duration of the salinity stress, the plants show different reactions. First of all, salinity reduces the growth of plants due to the existing osmotic materials around the roots. Furthermore, salinity exerts hypertonic stress on the plants (Ahmad and Prasad, 2011). Under salt stress, ions, mostly Na+ and Cl−, accumulate in the tissues of plants and cause significant physiological and biochemical disorders, reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, and inhibition of K+ uptake (Ahmad and Prasad, 2011). Therefore, these occurrences lead to a reduction in plant growth and development. In the previous investigation, the plant growth characteristics, essential oil (EO) content and quality of peppermint decreased under salinity stress (Khorasaninejad et al., 2010).
Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs), as soil amendments, can alleviate the detrimental effects of stress on the plants. They are more important in the regions where water availability is deficient and could be a good strategy for holding water in arid and semi-arid regions (Yang and Miao, 2010). In agriculture systems, applying SAPs have a significant role in the reduction of detrimental effects of drought stress as well as increasing the soil capacity for saving and absorbing water to resist drought conditions and lack of water availability (Huttermann Zommorodi and Reise, 2006). In addition, these substances could supply large quantities of water and nutrients that release slowly to improve growth under limited water supply (Karimi and Naderi, 2007). In general, under environmental stress conditions, hydrophilic polymers application can improve plant survival, water use efficiency and dry matter production (Huttermann Zommorodi and Reise, 2006).
Medicinal and aromatic plants are valuable sources of secondary metabolites and used in various industries such as food and pharmaceutical. Ocimum is one of the largest genera in Lamiaceae family which consisted of 65 species native to Africa, South America, and Asia (Paton, 1992; Makri and Kintzios, 2008). In Iranian flora, some species of basil (Farsi name is “Reyhan”), such as O. basilicum, O. ciliatum, O. menthaefolium, O. canum, and O. minimum are widely distributed (Moghaddam et al., 2011). Among the species, sweet basil (O. basilicum Linn.) is the major crop in many countries which is used as a culinary herb. The raw material and EO of basil applied in pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries (Makri and Kintzios, 2008). It is used greatly in folk medicines as antispasmodic, stomachic, carminative, antiulcerogenic, anti-inflammatory, anticarcinogenic, analgesic, stimulant, radioprotective, and febrifuge (Makri and Kintzios, 2008; Shirazi et al., 2014). The chemical composition of the Ocimum genus was studied in several studies previously. However, constituents of basil EO significantly vary depending on the genetic factors (the cultivar, season, phonological stage, chemotype, and origin of the plant), environmental factors (climatic and edaphic factors, agronomic practices, and post-harvesting processing), and their interaction effects (Bilal et al., 2012; Ghasemi Pirbalouti et al., 2013; Moghaddam et al., 2015, 2018; Ghasemi Pirbalouti, 2019). Oxygenated monoterpenes and phenylpropanoids are considered as the main compounds of Ocimum genus. In different O. basilicum cultivars and chemotypes, linalool, eugenol, methyl chavicol, methyl cinnamate, methyl eugenol, and geraniol are reported as major components (Unnithan et al., 2013; Padalia et al., 2014; Ghasemi Pirbalouti et al., 2017).
Salinity is one of the major environmental factors that affected more than 20 % of cultivated land worldwide and the influenced regions are increasing regularly (Ahmad and Prasad, 2011). There is a serious risk of salinization of more than 50 % of cultivable lands by the middle of the 21st century (Wang et al., 2003). Therefore, using different methods for reducing the harmful effects of salinity is very important. SAPs application has extended to aid the growth of plants in saline soils. These substances have been applied as a soil amendment to improve plant growth under salt stress (Shi et al., 2010). Soil salinity is one of the most important problems and challenges in most of Iran's agricultural lands. According to the evaluation of previous researches, there is a little study on the effect of SAPs application under salinity conditions. Therefore, as Ocimum basilicum cv. Keshkeni luvelu is an important aromatic and medicinal plant uses in different industries, the aim of this study was to examine the influence of three types of SAPs on growth, EO content and composition and some physiological characteristics of pot-grown O. basilicum cv. Keshkeni luvelu under salinity stress. It is expected that the results of the present study will be practical for enhancing new techniques for improving the production of basil under salt stress.
Section snippets
Plant materials and experimental design
This study was performed in the experimental greenhouse of Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran during 2017. The seeds of Ocimum basilicum cv. Keshkeni luvelu were cultivated at plant trays that filled with peat and perlite (1:1) and then at four leaves stage, five seedlings were transplanted to the plastic pots (30 cm diameter and 40 cm height) which filled with 12 kg soil on the middle of April. The used soil properties are presented in Table 1. The pot experiment was conducted as factorial
Growth parameters and water content determination
According to the results of this study, the fresh and dry weight of aerial parts and their ratio were decreased by severity of NaCl stress as well as dry matter (Table 3). The lowest fresh (10.13 g plant−1) and dry (1.89 g plant−1) weight, their ratio (3.75) and dry matter (12.79 %) were observed at the treatment of 120 mM NaCl without using SAPs (Table 3). The application of SAPs increased the weight in each salinity level in comparison with no application of them, although different types
Discussion
Salinity has different negative effects on plants such as growth and water content (Attia et al., 2008). Under salt stress, the growth of some medicinal plants such as Salvia officinalis (Taarit et al., 2011) and Satureja hortensis (Mehdizadeh et al., 2019b) decreased probably because of high osmotic capability, salt ions toxicity, limitation of forming plants growth promoters like cytokinin and expanding inhibitor productions (Gupta and Huang, 2014). Furthermore, under salinity stress soil
Conclusion
Based on the results of this experiment, the growth, EO content and composition and some physiological characteristics of O. basilicum cv. Keshkeni luvelu were influenced by NaCl. At the higher NaCl levels, the negative effects of NaCl on plants and osmotic abilities were observed. The application of SAPs had different effects on the studied traits. In most cases, Terracottem was the most effective SAP to mitigate the negative effects of salinity. In addition, the application of different types
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare there is no conflict of interest.
Acknowledgement
This research was supported by Grant 3/46240, from the Ferdowsi University of Mashhad Fund, Iran.
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