Salt Tolerance of Ocimum Basilicum Cv. Genovese Using Salicylic Acid, Seaweed, Dry Yeast and Moringa Leaf Extract

Abstract

To improve the salt tolerance of Genovese cultivar of sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) plants, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of certain growth substances (salicylic acid, seaweed extract, dry yeast and moringa leaf extract) on growth, volatile oil percentage and yield as well as chemical constituents under saline water irrigation stress conditions (control, 1000, 2000 and 4000 ppm NaCl). The obtained results revealed that the higher salinity levels (2000 and 4000 ppm NaCl) caused significant decreases in vegetative growth measurements of basil plants compared to control and the lowest salinity level (1000 ppm NaCl). Maximum reduction was observed at 4000 ppm NaCl which showed higher increase of the total phenolics and free proline contents. All recoded parameters were enhanced for plants grown under 1000 ppm NaCl. Seaweed extract was superior than other treatments in enhancing the plant tolerance to salinity which appeared in the significantly increasing of growth and volatile oil content of basil. Phenolics and proline contents were increased with salicylic acid treatment comparing with other ones. The best combination recommended as a result of the current study is treating basil plants with seaweed extract under low salinity level (1000 ppm) for improving the growth and volatile oil parameters.

Response of African Basil (Ocimum gratissimum L.) to Salt Stress under Tropical Conditions in the Republic of Benin: Growth, Ions and Organic Solutes Accumulation

“…Thus, salinity effect on African basil plant growth depends on the growth parameter taken into account. This result corroborated those reported in other vegetable species including sweet basil [21,19,24,22,31]. According to the results, root fresh mass followed by shoot fresh mass appeared to be the most salt sensitive parameters in basil and could be validly used to characterize the response of other African basil cultivars to salinity.…”

“…Salt stress induced an increase in free proline content in both leaves and roots as previously reported [41,42]. In one genotype of sweet basil (O. basilicum L.), [22] reported that NaCl concentrations of 4000 ppm induced higher increase in free proline content of plants than lowest NaCl concentrations. Proline is known as a compatible osmoregulator involved in salt tolerance [43].…”

“…It is now well known that in the southern Benin where is located an important African basil production area is strongly affected by poor irrigation water quality resulting in soil salinization which hampers crop production [17]. Some studies have focused on the effect of salt stress on sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum) seed germination, plant growth, yield and physiology [18][19][20][21][22] as well as essential oil and pigments accumulation [18,22]. However, data related to salt stress effect on plant growth and physiology in African basil are extremely scarce.…”

Response of tossa jute (Corchorus olitorius L.) salt stressed plants to external application of calcium and potassium

“…Salt stress induced an increase in proline and soluble sugars content in leaves and roots. This behavior is common in plants exposed to salt stress as reported in several vegetable species such as tomato (Rivero et al, 2014), sweet basil (Mousa et al, 2020), African basil (Loko et al, 2022) and okra (Gouveitcha et al, 2021). These organic solutes are known to play a key role in plant osmotic adjustment (Bouatrous, 2013;Bouassaba et al, 2018) as well as in the stabilization of certain proteins for proline (Bouatrous, 2013).…”

Salicylic acid attenuates the harmful effects of salt stress on basil

“…The increased number of leaves after the application of salicylic acid can be attributed to the action of that compound on proteins and enzymes involved in cell growth (Miura & Tada, 2014). Salicylic acid application attenuated the harmful effects of salt stress on basil "Cinnamon" (Silva et al, 2018a), and "Genovese" (Mousa et al, 2020), as well as tomato (Solanum lycopersicum -Souri & Tohidloo, 2019), rice (Oryza sativa - Kim et al, 2018), and pepper (Capsicum annuum - Kaya et al, 2020).…”