selenium

Basil (Ocimum basilicum L.)  is a annual herbaceous plant belongs to the mint family and the genus Ocimum, which includes many species. O. basilicum species is the most important economic species and like other the mint family plants, it is known as a source of important cyclic compounds and essential oils, as well as a rich source of phenolic compounds and flavonoids.  The most important compounds of the basil essential oil are Linalool, methyl chavicol, citral, euginol, cineole, geraniol, and camphor and methyl cinnamate. Drought stress is one of the most important abiotic stresses, it plays an important role in reducing the performance of medicinal plants and causes many morphological and biochemical changes in plants. This study attempts to investigate the effect of foliar application selenium on basil (Ocimum basilicum L.), the ative population "Shahre-ray", under drought stress conditions. 

In order to investigation the effect of selenium foliar spraying on the basil plant of the native Shahr Ray variety under drought stress conditions, a factorial experiment was conducted in layout of a randomized complete block design with four replications in the research field of the Department of Horticultural Sciences of Mohaghegh Ardabili University. The experimental factors include different levels of drought stress (full irrigation and irrigation cut-off at the beginning of reproductive growth and irrigation cut-off at 50% of flowering) and spraying with selenium in four concentrations of 0, 0.5, 1 and 2 mM 

The results showed that with increasing drought stress severity, morphological traits including plant height, number of lateral branches, and biochemical traits including chlorophyll a, chlorophyll b decreased, but the content of leaf proline and essential oil increased. Selenium foliar application improved the growth of basil plants under drought stress conditions. During this study, the use of selenium foliar application created a type of resistance in the basil plant that maintained the plant under stress conditions. With lower levels of selenium, this resistance was higher, but with higher levels, the resistance was lower.                                                                                                                                    

In the current situation and despite the lack of water resources and the abundant need of plants for water, it is possible to use some non-toxic elements that are necessary for plants in the form of foliar application, to make plants resistant to stress conditions.