Medicinal Plants
Esmaeil Nabizadeh; Masud Haghshenas; Khadijeh Ahmadi
Abstract
IntroductionThe medicinal plant of Balangu Shirazi (Lalemantia royleana Benth) to the Lamiaceae or Labiateae family. This medicinal plant is native to the tropical regions of Asia, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. This plant is also found in various regions of the Middle East and Europe, especially Turkey, ...
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IntroductionThe medicinal plant of Balangu Shirazi (Lalemantia royleana Benth) to the Lamiaceae or Labiateae family. This medicinal plant is native to the tropical regions of Asia, India, Afghanistan and Pakistan. This plant is also found in various regions of the Middle East and Europe, especially Turkey, Iran and in the Siberian regions of Russia, i.e. in Western Siberia. Due to the presence of high mucilage content, Lallemantia royleana seeds quickly absorb water through the hydration process and produce a sticky, cloudy and tasteless liquid that can be used as a new source of hydrocolloid in food formulations as well. Soil salinity is a growing problem in agricultural ecosystems that endangers the growth and productivity of plants. Salinity causes ionic toxicity, nutritional imbalance, pigment destruction and inhibition of photosynthesis, oxidative and osmotic stress, limited release of CO2 in leaves, changes in metabolic pathways, cell deformation, premature aging and finally cell death in it becomes a plant. Therefore, effective solutions to deal with soil salinity under agricultural management systems can include all kinds of salt-resistant species and biotechnological approaches such as the use of beneficial microorganisms that are able to improve plant tolerance to salt. Mycorrhizal fungi, one of the common soil microbes, can occupy the roots of most terrestrial plant species. Notably, mycorrhizal fungi can improve host plant tolerance to salinity stress by a series of physiological and biochemical mechanisms, including higher water use efficiency, photosynthetic capacity, maintaining ion homeostasis, osmotic protection, maintaining cell ultrastructure and enhancing antioxidant metabolism. This study was conducted with the aim of investigating the role of three mycorrhizal fungi on seed yield, physiological characteristics and mineral elements (N, P and K) of the medicinal plant L. royleana under salt stress conditions. Materials and MethodsThis experiment was factorial based on a completely randomized design including the treatment of mycorrhizal fungi at three levels (R. irregularis, G. versiform, F. mosseae) with the number of spores 5 x 106 per milliliter of inoculum and salinity stress including four level (0, 2, 4, 6 and 8 dS/m of sodium chloride salt) was done in three repetitions. This experiment was carried out in 2018 in a greenhouse at Islamic Azad University, Mahabad Branch, day and night temperatures were 25 and 22 degrees Celsius, respectively, with two relative humidity levels of 60 (during the day) and 40 (at night). The percentage and amount of carbon dioxide was about (mMol.mol-1) 500-600. Shirazi Balangu seeds were obtained from Pakan Seed Company of Isfahan with 99% purity and 80% potency. Distilled water was used for zero treatment (control) and pure sodium chloride salt (Merck, Germany) was used to prepare solutions with electrical conductivity of 2, 4, 6 and 8 dS/m. Balango seeds were sown in the middle of Mehr in pots with an opening diameter of 20 cm and a length of 18 cm containing soil, sand and manure (2:1:1) at a depth of 0.5-1 cm. Three fungi G. versiform, R. irregularis and F. mosseae were used for mycorrhiza inoculation, and there were at least 50 live spores in each gram of soil. The ratio of the inoculant used to the soil was one to nine (by volume) and in layers. In order to prevent any deficiency of nutrients, 10 ml of Hoagland nutrient solution with half the concentration of phosphorus was added to all the pots every week. The traits under study encompassed the seed yield of a single plant, seed oil percentage, antioxidant capacity, proline content, as well as the leakage of ionic substances and nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was conducted on the data using SAS 9.1 statistical software. Mean comparisons among traits were performed utilizing Duncan's test at a significance level of 5%. Results and DiscussionThe results showed that the traits evaluated in the present study were affected by mycorrhizal fungus treatments, salinity stress and the mutual effect of fungi in salinity stress. Seedlings inoculated with mycorrhizal fungus R. irregularis had the highest seed yield, percentage of oil, proline, antioxidant power and mineral elements compared to the other two strains of mycorrhizal fungus. Salinity stress increased the percentage of oil, proline, and antioxidant power of L. royleana medicinal plant leaves, and increasing the salinity stress from 0 to 8 dS/m decreased grain yield and mineral elements. According to the comparison results of the average effect of fungus interaction in salt stress, the highest amount of seed yield and mineral elements in plant inoculation with R. irregularis fungus was observed in the absence of salt stress, as well as the highest amount of traits of oil percentage, proline and antioxidant power. It was obtained in a tension of 8 dS/m. According to the results of the present research, the use of R. irregularis mushroom strain had the most positive effect on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of L. royleana medicinal plant compared to the absence of mushroom inoculation. ConclusionIn general, the results of this study showed that mycorrhizal inoculation had a positive and significant effect on seed yield, antioxidant capacity, oil percentage, proline content and the concentration of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium elements in L. royleana plant. Also, the results indicated that the use of mycorrhiza in the cultivation of L. royleana can partially prevent the occurrence of element deficiency in saline soils and reduce the high consumption of chemical fertilizers. This assertion has been corroborated by research conducted by other scholars focusing on medicinal plants. Employing mycorrhizal symbiosis in saline soils has been shown to enhance plant resistance to salinity. Therefore, by employing a suitable mycorrhizal strain with salinity resistance, it becomes feasible to mitigate the departure of saline soils from the production cycle, thereby averting consumption-related issues. Furthermore, the excessive use of chemical fertilizers has led to numerous problems, highlighting the need for alternative approaches.
Medicinal Plants
Esmaeil Nabizadeh; Masud Haghshenas; Narges Dolatmand; Khadijeh Ahmadi
Abstract
Introduction
Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) is one of the medicinal plants of the Asteraceae family that contains natural compounds, especially stevioside and ribaodioside A, which are estimated to be 150 to 400 times sweeter than sucrose. Plants are exposed to various environmental stresses during growth ...
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Introduction
Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) is one of the medicinal plants of the Asteraceae family that contains natural compounds, especially stevioside and ribaodioside A, which are estimated to be 150 to 400 times sweeter than sucrose. Plants are exposed to various environmental stresses during growth and development under natural and agricultural conditions. Among these, drought is one the most severe environmental stresses affecting plant productivity. About 80–95% of the fresh biomass of the plant body is comprised of water, which plays a vital role in various physiological processes including many aspects of plant growth, development, and metabolism. Stevia is susceptible to various environmental stresses but the major effects are contributed by drought. Today, the fungal species Stevia rebaudiana is used as a biofertilizer and increases the production of secondary metabolites of economically valuable plants and also increases the growth and seed production of many plants. This fungal endophyte produces a significant amount of acid phosphatase for mobility in a wide range of insoluble or complex forms of phosphate, enabling the host plant to have adequate access to inactive phosphorus reserves in the soil. However, medicinal plants that are cultivated have often been reported to have lower abundance of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi in the rhizosphere, which significantly reduces plant survival. Considering the coexistence role of mycorrhizal fungi in modulating the effects of drought stress, the aim of this study was to investigate the morphological, physiological and biochemical traits of stevia in response to the effects of mycorrhizal inoculation and drought stress.
Materials and Methods
This experiment was conducted to investigate the effect of P. indica endophytic fungus under water stress conditions on vegetative characteristics, physiological parameters and micronutrients of stevia. A factorial experiment was employed based a completely randomized design with four replications in the research greenhouse of Islamic Azad University, Mahabad Branch in 2017. The first factor was drought stress at four levels (25, 45, 60 and 80% of field capacity) and the second factor was inoculation of seedlings with fungus at two levels (no inoculation and inoculation with P. indica). Water stress was applied based on a combination of plant appearance symptoms (no wilting to severe wilting) and soil moisture. Investigated traits included root colonization, dry weight, leaf number, plant height, stem diameter, chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll, carotenoids, proline, soluble sugars, antioxidant power and micronutrients including copper, iron, zinc and manganese. To analyze the data variance, SAS 9.1 statistical software was used to analyze the variance of the data.
Results and Discussion
The results showed that the evaluated traits in the present study were affected by the main treatments of fungus and drought stress. Seedlings inoculated with P. indica endophytic fungi had the highest percentage of root colonization, growth parameters, photosynthetic pigment content, soluble compounds and micronutrients compared to no inoculation. Drought stress increased soluble sugars, proline content and antioxidant power of stevia leaves and decreased the other traits by increasing the stress level from 25 to 80%. The highest rate of root colonization (26.90%), stem diameter (3.21 mm) and carotenoid content (1.71 μg/ml) was observed in the treatment of plant inoculation with fungi and 25% drought stress. While the highest antioxidant power was found in the treatment of plant inoculation with fungi and 80% drought stress. According to the results of the present study, use of P. indica fungus had the most positive effect on the quantitative and qualitative characteristics of stevia medicinal plant compared to no fungus inoculation.
Conclusion
This study showed the positive effect of P. indica endophyte inoculation on quantitative and qualitative characteristics of root colonization, dry weight, number of leaves, plant height, stem diameter, chlorophyll a, b, total chlorophyll, carotenoids, proline, soluble sugars, antioxidant power and The micronutrients of calcium, iron, zinc and manganese showed stevia, and drought stress reduced the studied traits except for proline content, soluble sugars and antioxidant power. Inoculation of stevia seedlings with P. indica endophytic fungi at drought stress levels had the highest rate of root colonization, stem diameter, carotenoid content and antioxidant power compared to non-fungal inoculation. Therefore, due to the effect of biological compounds of natural origin and the production of plants with healthier active secondary compounds, the use of P. indica endophytic fungi can be recommended.
