Salinization, as a serious climate change phenomenon, continues to cause critical issues for soils and crops. Abundance of genetic diversity of plants could contribute in solving the impacts of salinity. However, the relations between physiological and molecular traits of plant species need deep investigation and interpretation. Pot experiments were conducted in the greenhouse to investigate the difference in behavior between two amaranth species when they were beforehand subjected to salinity-stress conditions, specifically on some specific physiological and molecular characteristics. After 45 days from transplanting, salt stress was induced using a 150 mM sodium chloride solution. Treatments were arranged in randomized complete block design using three replications. After 0, 2, 6, 10, and 24 h, samples were collected to evaluate physiological data as well as diversity of gene expression. The samples were immediately frozen in liquid nitrogen and stored in -80⁰ C ultralow temperature refrigerators. Findings revealed that the red amaranth species (Amaranthus cruentus) was more tolerant to saline stress than the green amaranth species (Amaranthus hypochondriacus). Result data revealed that malondialdehyde (MDA) content in the red amaranth increased after 2 h then decreased (after 6 and 10 h) before rising again after 24 h. In the green amaranth, MDA content initially decreased after 2 h before increasing and later decreasing in a zigzag pattern ending in an increase after 24 h. There was an initial steep rise in proline content of green amaranth after 2 h which continued to still rise moderately till 24 h. In the red amaranth the initial rise in proline continued after 2, 6 and 10 h before it stopped. Results also showed that red amaranth gave higher value of superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity as compared with green amaranth in all tested salinity exposure times. The investigation on the expression of four genes assessed through quantitative PCR indicated the efficiency of red amaranth in increasing the expression of SOS1, HKT1, NHX1, and DGR2 genes, which encode adaptation-related proteins under salinity stress. In summary, the current work demonstrated that red amaranth could be an efficient genetic resource in improving salt-tolerant genotypes belonging to Amaranthus genus.

Two pot trials were carried out during the two successive Winter seasons of 2015/2016 and 2016/2017 at private commercial nursery, Damanhour city, El-Beheira Governorate, Egypt under greenhouse conditions. The objective of these experiments was to study the effect of foliar application with each of salicylic acid (SA) (50 and 100 mgL-1), triacontanol (TRIA) (25 and 50 mgL-1) and δ-aminolevulinic acid (ALA) (25 and 50 mgL-1) on Viola wittrockiana Gams L. (Blue with Blotch cultivar) grown under different concentrations of salinity (0, 20, 40 and 60 mM of NaCl). Generally, the tested materials were varied in their significant effects on studying characters. The obtained results of the two seasons indicated that increasing salinity levels from 20 to 60 mM significantly reduced all studied parameter levels, i.e., plant height, branches number per plant, shoot dry weight per plant, leaf area, root length and root dry weight, nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, and chlorophyll contents. While Na+ and Cl- were increased relative to control. Also, the results indicated that the salicylic acid, δ-aminolevulinic acid, and triacontanol significantly increased plant growth and chemical traits, as well as reduced the contents of Na+ and Cl- compared to the control (distilled water only) treatment. Application of triacontanol (25 mgL-1) or salicylic acid (50 mgL-1); improved vegetative, flowering, root growth and leaves chemical composition under salt stress during both seasons. Triacontanol enhanced salinity tolerance in both seasons by increasing proline accumulation. Under each salinity level, triacontanol (25 mgL-1) was the most effective treatment for mitigating the deleterious effect of salt stress in pansy plants

Oenothera biennis L., the so-called “evening primrose”, has a significant ornamental and medicinal value. The aim of this research is to assess the impact of foliar spray with two synthetic cytokinins (N-(2-chloro-4-pyridyl)-N-phenylurea (CPPU) at concentrations of 20 and 30 ppm, and thidiazuron (TDZ) at concentrations of 75 and 150 ppm) on vegetative growth (e.g. plant height, branch number/plant, the fresh and dry weights of shoot/plant), flowering traits (e.g. flowers number/plant, number of days to flowering from seed sowing, flower diameter, and flower fresh and dry weights), seed yield traits (e.g. capsules number/plant, the fresh and dry weights of capsules, 1000 seed weight/plant and seeds weight/plant) and chemical traits (e.g. photosynthetic pigments, total carbohydrates, and minerals and oil-related compositions) for evening primrose plants. Results demonstrated generally that treatment with both CPPU and TDZ led to marked improvements across the studied traits compared to untreated plants. Applying TDZ at 75 ppm yielded the greatest results in terms of vegetative growth and chemical composition, excluding oil-related metrics. In contrast, CPPU at 30 ppm recorded the highest values for flowering performance, seed yield traits, and fixed oil composition. These findings suggest that regulated application of cytokinins can effectively enhance the agronomic and biochemical performance of Oenothera biennis, supporting its development as a high-value crop for ornamental and medicinal use in line with market demand.

There is a great demand for eco-friendly biostimulators that improve plant performance sustainably. Among the naturally existing plant growth accelerators are licorice (Glycyrrhiza glabra L.) root aqueous extract (LRE) and moringa(Moringa oleifera ML.) leaf ethanol extract (MLE).To explore the effects of foliage sprays of LRE and MLE on cumin (Cuminum cyminum L.) plant performance, an experiment was held inside a greenhouse located at the farm of the Faculty of Agriculture, Damanhour University, El-Beheira, during the two winter seasons of 2021-2022 and 2022-2023. Before the experiment, the soil and both extracts were chemically analyzed. In a factorial treatment design using a three-replicate RCBD, treatments were assigned randomly, each containing ten plants. The LRE was used at 0, 10, 20, and 30 g L-1 and the MLE at concentrations of 0, 50, and 100 ml L-1 as treatments. Vegetative traits and chemical and essential oil components were measured and recorded. Overall, the results revealed that both extracts significantly affected all examined traits in both seasons. Spraying cumin plants with a mixture of LRE at 30 g L-1 and MLE at 100 ml L-1 gave the highest plant height; 41.51 and 40.91 cm, the highest number of branches; 9.30 and 9.20 branch plant-1 , the highest shoot fresh weight; 20.54 and 19.55 g plant-1, the highest shoot dry weight; 12.78 and 12.42 g plant-1, the highest number of umbels per plant; 48.77 and 48.35 umbel plant-1, and the highest fruit yield; 7.24 and 6.82 g plant-1 in both seasons successively. Moreover, the highest percentage of essential oil; 5.89 and 6.10 %, the highest essential oil yield; 0.54 and 0.53 ml plant-1, as well as the highest chlorophyll a content; 1.48 and 1.51 mg g -1, the highest chlorophyll b content; 0.68 and 0.90 mg g -1, the highest carotenoids content; 0.44 and 0.66 mg g -1, the highest percentage of total carbohydrates; 23.7 and 23.66 %, the highest percentage of nitrogen; 2.18 and 2.28 %, the highest percentage of phosphorus; 0.32 and 0.30 %, and the highest percentage of potassium; 1.79 and 1.78 % were recorded when applying a mixture of LRE at 30 g L-1 and MLE at 100 ml L-1 in the two studied seasons successively. The current study showed that adding LRE at 30 g L-1 and MLE at 100 ml L-1 increases the growth and productivity of cumin. However, further investigation is required to study the effect of higher levels of LRE and MLE on the growth and productivity of cumin.