Anethum graveolens is an annual herb in the celery family Apiaceae. The experiment was carried out in a factorial design with two factors include salinity, which was applied to the root medium as NaCl (0 and 10ds/m) and nutrition as sodium silicate (0 and 1.5mM), and selenate (0, 5μM). Supplementary Si or Se ameliorated the negative effects of salinity on plant dry matter and chlorophyll content. Application of Si or Se decreased Na+ concentration and increased K+ concentration in roots and shoots of dill plants. Salinity imposed oxidative stress and leaded to increase malondialdehyde (MDA) concentration. Under saline condition, addition of Si/Se significantly increased the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) in salt-stressed plant when compared with plant subjected to salinity alone. Our results revealed that improvement in growth of salt stressed plants under the influence of Si and Se may be due to the improved ion balance, antioxidant enzymes activities and osmotic adjustment. These trace elements had negative effect on growth under non-saline conditions. Therefore, application of these trace elements (especially Silicon) under saline condition could be a better strategy for maintaining the crop productivity in these regions

The objective of this study was to determine the effects of foliar application of polyamines (PAs) on antioxidant defence and essential oil production of valerian (Valeriana officinalis L.) grown under different drought stress treatments (100, 70, 50 and 30% available water content). This study was carried out using pots in greenhouse condition. Drought–stressed valerian seedlings were sprayed with 1 mM concentration of each putrescine (Put), spermidine (Spd) and spermine (Spm). The results showed that drought stress significantly affected most biochemical characteristics of valerian plants. Characteristics including leaf relative water content, chlorophyll a and b contents were decreased, while carotenoids and electrolyte leakage were increased with the increase of water stress. In this research, defensive characteristics comprising proline content, soluble sugars, catalase, and ascorbate peroxidase were increased followed by drought stress to ameliorate the adverse effect of it. Results revealed that foliar application of Spd and Spm provoked the antioxidant enzymes activity as well as proline accumulation in valerian which alleviate the membrane damages. Consequently, Spd and Spm increased photosynthetic pigments which act as energy supply for plant growth and production. Here, putrescine had detrimental effects on CAT activity and Chl a content. Albeit, PAs presented remarkable effects under moderate drought stress condition but it showed reverse trends in severe drought stress condition. In terms of quantity and quality yield, drought stress reduced root growth but increased the concentration of essential oils. PAs are able to alleviate water deficit-induced diminish root growth. These results suggest that in moderate drought stress, growers can use PAs to increase productivity valerian.

A laboratory experiment was conducted to determine the effect of ultrasound (US) exposure time on germination behavior of sesame seeds. All tests were carried out at 20 kHz in a water bath ultrasonic device varying two factors, treatment duration (10, 20 and 30 min) and germination temperature (15, 20 and 25 ºC). Parallel tests were run in which seeds were soaked in water without sonication in order to eliminate the effect of water from US test results. US treatments enhanced seeds water uptake. At mild exposure time it improved sesame seed germination performance and seedling growth at suboptimal temperatures as indicated by higher germination percentage and germination rate. US applying for 20 min had relatively high superoxide dismutase activity; however, had not significant differences with control and US duration for 10 min. The catalase activity was strongly increased by applying the US for a 10 and 20 min. Among the treatments, application of US vibration for 10 and 20 min reduced both of malondialdehyde and H2O2 contents, however high US duration (30 min) increased both of the traits. In general, ultrasonic priming technique can be useful for early planting the sesame seeds, and lead to higher yields.

In this study wheat plants were treated with paclobutrazol (PBZ) and salicylic acid (SA) to analyze the enzyme activity and chlorophyll content under two drought stresses (-6 and -12 bar). The Bahar cultivar was grown in a hydroponic system and drought stress was applied using PEG-6000 (-6 and -12 bar potential). Plants were kept under stress conditions for 10 days. Treatments with 5 mg L-1 paclobutrazol and 0.1 mm salicylic acid were carried out simultaneously with drought stress. The effects of PBZ and SA treatments on wheat were monitored by measuring the changes in CAT, APX, SOD, GPX, MDA, H2O2 and chlorophyll under drought stress. Both PBZ and SA increased antioxidant enzyme activity and showed significant differences (p< 0.001 and 0.05). APX, SOD and CAT activity decreased under the drought condition but PBZ treatment resulted in increased APX activity in the drought stress treatment. However, seedlings supplemented under drought stress showed a profound increase in GPX activity (100% and 53% higher at -6 and -12 bar PEG on 3D) compared to stressed seedlings without SA spray. The results showed that paclobutrazol minimizes the negative effects of drought stress with evidence of enhancing chlorophyll content and antioxidant enzymes such as APX, CAT and GPX that reduces H2O2 and lipid peroxidation (MDA) content.