Role of melatonin in improving growth, yield quantity and quality of Moringa oleifera L. plant under drought stress

Abstract

Background: Melatonin, an indoleamine compound, has the ability to regulate a lot of physiological and biochemical processes under different environmental stresses such as drought stress. Materials and methods: So, this investigation was done to study the physiological role of melatonin on Moringa oleifera plants grown in sandy soil at normal and drought stress. Results: Subjecting M. oleifera plant to drought stress caused significant decreases in growth, photosynthetic pigment, indole acetic acid (IAA), element contents, yield, and yield attributes, meanwhile increased lipid peroxidation is expressed as malondialdehyde (MDA) and various antioxidant enzymes as superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase (CAT), and peroxidase (POX). On the other hand, foliar treatment with different concentrations of melatonin significantly increased growth parameters, yield quantity, and quality of M. oleifera plant at normal and drought-stressed conditions via improving photosynthetic pigments (IAA), phenolic and element contents, and antioxidant enzyme systems, whereas declined malondialdhyde (MDA) contents as compared with their corresponding untreated controls (M0). Foliar treatment with 100 mM melatonin showed the greatest growth criteria and yield components of M. oleifera plants at either normal irrigation or under drought stress. This concentration also improved amino acid constituents of the yielded M. oleifera plants compared with other concentrations under normal and stress conditions. Conclusion: We can conclude that spraying M. oleifera with melatonin could alleviate the reduced effect of drought stress.

Insights into 28-homobrassinolide (HBR)-mediated redox homeostasis, AsA–GSH cycle, and methylglyoxal detoxification in soybean under drought-induced oxidative stress

“…Macro element levels decreased significantly under drought stress in soybean seedlings, and our results are similar to those of several authors, including those of Arjenaki et al (2012) for wheat plants under drought stress, Ramadan et al (2019) for sunflower plants under salt stress, and Sadak et al (2020) for Moringa oleifera under drought stress. The macro elements decrease might be due to the decline in photosynthetic pigment levels, which is supported by the findings of Hasan et al (2019).…”

Pure Organic Active Compounds Against Abiotic Stress: A Biostimulant Overview

“…Melatonin also alleviated oxidative stress caused by water stress in two species of Salvia and increased the essential oil production ( Bidabadi et al, 2020 ). In addition, the foliar application of melatonin in moringa trees ( Moringa oleifera L.) under both normal irrigation and drought in a field trial, increased tree growth and its oil yield and quality ( Sadak et al, 2020a ).…”

Melatonin as Master Regulator in Plant Growth, Development and Stress Alleviator for Sustainable Agricultural Production: Current Status and Future Perspectives

“…Melatonin is considered as a master plant regulator as it stimulates plant growth and development by acting as signaling molecule associated with defense mechanisms against different biotic and abiotic stresses like cold, drought, salinity and nutritional deficiencies [14,15]. It is also involved in multiple physiological actions such as photosynthesis, seed germination that occurs in plants [16]. Biotic and abiotic stresses in plants cause reductions in yield, growth, senescence and even sometimes death, but in return they produce different types of responses to their protection against stresses.…”