Effect of Seed Treatment with Magnetic Field on Germination Characteristics of Cuminum ciminum Under Salinity Condition

In order to investigate the effect of magnetic intensity and salinity on germination characteristics of Cuminum ciminum, an experiment was conducted in medicinal plants laboratory of University of Torbat Heydariyeh. Four levels of magnetic field intensity (0, 40, 80, and 120 milli Tesla) as the first factor and four levels of salinity stress (0, -3, -6, and -9 bar) as the second factor was applied. The results showed that salinity was significant on all studied factors including germination percentage, germination rate and mean germination time, seedling weight and length and seed vigor indices I and II at 1% level. Increasing the salinity level reduced the seed germination percentage from 97% in the control treatment to 25% in the -6 bar salinity treatment. Magnetic field also had a significant effect on shoot, root, and seedling length and seed vigor index I factors at the level 1%. In addition it had significant effect on the germination rate and mean germination time at the level of 5%. Application of magnetic field with an intensity of 120 mT increased the weight of shoot, root and seedling by 44.2%, 59.2%, and 52.5% compared to the control, respectively. The interaction of salinity and magnetic field showed a significant effect on shoot, root, and seedling length and seed vigor index I at the level 1%. The general conclusion of this study showed that with increasing salinity, germination percentage decreased and with increasing magnetic field, seedling weight increased. Increasing the length of shoot, root, and seedling also was one of the positive effects of increasing the intensity of the magnetic field