Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 PhD. Student, Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
2 Department of Soil Science, College of Agriculture, Isfahan University of Technology, Isfahan, Iran
3 Department of Pharmacognosy, School of Pharmacy, Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran
Abstract
Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis L.) is one of the medicinal plants exhibiting potential for secondary metabolite production. In the present study, the interaction effects of zinc nutrition and salinity on growth of Rosemary, total phenolic content, DPPH radical scavenging activity and ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) were studied in a Zn deficient soil. Two zinc levels (0 and 10 mg kg-1 Zn as ZnSO4) and three salinity levels (0, 50 and 100 mM NaCl in irrigation water) were used as treatments in a factorial experiment based on completely randomized design with four replications. According to the results, salinity did not show significant effect on shoot dry weight production which indicates salinity tolerance of Rosemary. 100 mM NaCl salinity increased total phenolic content, DPPH radical scavenging activity and FRAP up to 3, 8 and 5 percent respectively. 10 mg Zn added to the soil also increased total phenolic content (2%), DPPH radical scavenging activity (4%) and FRAP (3%). The results of correlation test showed that increase of antioxidant activity in Rosemary grown under salinity condition was due to the increase of total phenolic content. Our findings suggest that salt stress and suitable Zn nutrition increase antioxidant compounds in Rosemary.
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