Alleviation of Adverse Effects of Salt Stress in Wheat Cultivars by Foliar Treatment with Antioxidant 2—Changes in Some Biochemical Aspects, Lipid Peroxidation, Antioxidant Enzymes and Amino Acid Contents

Abstract

Ascobin (compound composed of ascorbic acid and citric acid) is considered one of exogenous protectants which may alleviate the harmful effects of salinity stress. Pot experiments were performed at the screen greenhouse of National Research Centre, Cairo, Egypt to study the effect of foliar treatment of two cultivars of wheat plant with different concentrations of ascobin (0, 200, 400 and 600 mg/l) on some biochemical parameters, antioxidant enzymes, element contents and amino acid constituents of two cultivars of wheat plant grown under different salinity levels (0.0, 3000 and 6000 mg/l) in 2011/2012 and 2012/2013. Salinity with different concentrations levels increased phenolic compounds contents of the two wheat cultivars. The activities of antioxidant enzymes (SOD, CAT, POD, PPO, AXP and GR) dramatically increased due to salinity stress. Amino acid content was increased in cultivar Sids 1, while the content was decreased in cultivar Giza 168 in all salinity treatments. Increments in the above mentioned parameters compared to the untreated plants at normal and stressed conditions. The magnitude of increments was much more pronounced in response to 600 mg/l of ascobin. It could be concluded that, foliar treatment of wheat cultivars with ascobin could partially alleviate the harmful effect of salinity especially at the lower levels of salinity of the two cultivars of wheat at most of the studied parameters.