Foliar application of Salicylic Acid reduced the harsh influences of water

Abstract

Water deficit is considered the most important restricted factor for plant products, in that several chemicals have been used to reduce the harmful effects of water stress. It is known that the role of salicylic acid (SA) is quite important in this mechanism. To study the effect of water deficit and four levels of salicylic acid (0, 0.375, 0.75 and 1.5 mM) on some biochemical criteria of three sunflower hybrids including tolerant (NX-19012, NX-00989) and sensitive (FH-352) at vegetative and flowering growth stages. Two sets of pots were arranged in green house, water stress given to one set at vegetative stage and to second at flowering stage, and sprayed with SA. Proline and Sugar enhanced significantly under drought conditions and further increased by the application of SA 0.75 mM. The decrease of protein indicated that water stress affected protein synthesis, but it was increased with the spray of SA. Tolerant hybrids produced better results than the sensitive. It seemed that SA had the ability to increase the tolerant ability of the plant to drought stress.