Investigating the growth and phytochemical characteristics in the in vitro culture of Nitraria schoberi under salt stress

To investigate the effect of salt stress on the growth and phytochemical characteristics in the in vitro cultivation of Nitraria schoberi, an experiment was conducted in the form of a factorial design with a completely random basis. The treatments included different concentrations of sodium chloride (0, 50 and 100 mM) and sodium sulfate (0, 10 and 20 mM). First, the seeds were germinated in vitro and then the cotyledon leaves with the hypocotyl of germinated seeds were placed as explants in MS cultivation environment with 2 mg/L BAP, 0.5 mg/L IBA, and the mentioned treatments. The explants were placed in the growth room under the conditions of 16 hours of light and 8 hours of darkness at a temperature of 25±2. After 4 weeks, stem length, number of leaves, and total phenol and flavonoids were measured. The results of variance analysis showed that different levels of salt have a significant effect (at the 99% level) on the growth indices of seedlings such as the length of the stem and the number of leaves, as well as on the total amount of phenol and flavonoid in the tissue of leaves. Based on comparisons, the maximum length of the stem (4.3 cm) and the number of leaves (5.5) related to the cultivation environment without salt and the highest amount of total phenol (35.37 mg/g) and flavonoid (24.6 mg/g) g/g) related to the cultivation environment containing 50 mM sodium chloride with 10 mM sodium sulfate.