Effect of Exogenous Application of Hydrogen Peroxide on some Salt Tolerance Indices in Oregano (Origanum majorana L.)

Salinity is one of the environmental stresses that have limited influence on the crop growth. Oxidative process is a secondary stress due to salinity. Oregano is enumerated as one of the most important of medicinal plant that its production and development is possible in Iran. In order to study the effect of exogenous application of hydrogen peroxide on salt tolerance in oregano (Origanum majorana L.) an experiment wasconducted in greenhouse conditions. This study was designed as factorial based on completely randomized design with 3 replications. Different concentration of hydrogen peroxide (0, 2.5 and 5 mM) and four levels of NaCl (0, 50, 10 and 150 mM) were treated in this study. Results showed that foliar application of hydrogen peroxide can improve shoot and root dry weight and alleviate adverse effects of salinity. In the other hand, highconcentration of hydrogen peroxide (5mM) increased total chlorophyll and caroteoid content about 46.6 and 100.6 percent comparing to control plant, respectively. Salt stress had no significant effect on cellular hydrogen peroxide, but it increased free proline and reduced K:Na ratio. While hydrogen peroxide content, free proline and K:Na ratio were increased 104.6, 320.7 and 77.8 percent by high level of hydrogen peroxide, respectively. The final result showed that foliar application of hydrogen peroxide decreased salt stress.