IntroductionGlobal warming induced climatic changes are among the major causes for salinity and drought stresses which ultimately reduce plant growth and yield. Therefore, the study of different physiological processes in plants is of prime importance for improvement in food security (Abdallah et al., 2020). Salinization, as a serious problem, is increasing day by day worldwide and considerably affects the arable lands particularly in dryland environments. Up to the mid of 21st century, 50% arable land will be lost due to salinity as the salinity is increasing about 10% annually (Al-Dakheel and Hussain, 2016). Accumulation of salts changes different physiological mechanisms like gas exchange parameters and chlorophyll fluorescence in crop plants (Shahbaz et al., 2017). Salinity also disturbs the numerous metabolic processes especially CO 2 assimilation rate and reduces the growth in rice (Shahbaz and Zia, 2011) and sunflower (Lalarukh and Shahbaz, 2018). Salinity is a major factor that reduces plant development and yield (Shahbaz et al., 2017;Lalarukh and Shahbaz, 2018).Oxidative stress generated due to excessive production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) leads to the upregulation of defensive mechanism in plants, i.e., enzymatic (catalase, superoxide dismutase and peroxidase) as well as nonenzymatic (ascorbate, tocopherol and phenolics) antioxidants (Shafiq et al., 2015). Enzymatic antioxidants support the steady development and reclamation of ROS, produced under stress condition. Being a halophyte, quinoa has a diversified range of different salt tolerant mechanisms (Ruiz et al., 2016).Halophytes are used as a source of food even under high saline conditions. Because of its tolerance to different abiotic stresses and superior nutritional profile, quinoa has a great potential to meet human food resources (Ruiz et al., 2016). Quinoa has strong ability to survive in harsh environmental conditions like salinity and drought.