Document Type : Original Article
Authors
1 MSc of Soil Science, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University
2 Associate Professor of Soil Science Department, Sari Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources University
3 Associate Research of Cultivation & Development Department of Medicinal Plants Research Center, Institute of Medicinal Plants, ACECR, Karaj, Iran
Abstract
To evaluate the effect of drought stress on some morphological and physiological properties of Echium amoenum Fisch & Mey medicinal plant, an experiment was carried out in completely randomized design with four replications at the research greenhouse of Institute of Medicinal Plants of Iranian Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (ACECR). In this experiment, the effect of different levels of drought stress including irrigation in field capacity as control treatment and irrigation after discharging 25, 50 and 75 percent of water on plant quantity characteristics (Leaf length and width, Root length, Root and Shoot fresh and dry weight) and quality characteristics (Proline and Total soluble sugar content) in vegetative growth level were investigated under greenhouse conditions. The results showed that drought stress caused a reduction in all morphological characteristics (except for the root length) while the concentrations of proline and leaves total soluble sugar with increasing levels of drought stress were significantly increased compared to control. The results showed that the accumulation of proline and soluble sugars were good indicators of drought tolerance. With increasing levels of drought stress, amount of leaves proline increased more than 5 times compared to control. Also, by increasing the drought stress severity from control (no stress) to 75% depletion of available water treatment, the content of leaves soluble sugars increased 2 times compared to control. Generally, results showed that this plant is tolerant to the drought stress by osmotic adjustment and this mechanism resulted in plant survival under drought stress conditions.
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