Mitigating the Toxic Effects of Salinity in Wheat through Exogenous Application of Moringa Leaf Extract

Abstract

Allelochemicals have emerged as an important player in inducing the abiotic stress tolerance. The experiment included three components: different levels of salinity stress (SS: control, 6 dS m-1, 12 dS m-1), seed priming with moringa leaf extract (MLE: 0.5%, 1.0%, 1.5%, 2.0%, 2.5%, 3.0%), and saltwater-tolerant and salinity-sensitive wheat cultivars (Faisalabad-2008, Galaxy-2013). Results showed that salinity lowered photosynthetic pigments, photosynthesis, transpiration, internal carbon, and stomatal conductance while causing poor and delayed germination, inconsistent seedling growth, and increased hydrogen peroxide accumulation. However, hydro-priming and MLE priming enhanced emergence dynamics, growth, biochemical and enzymatic characteristics, and physiological aspects. The cultivar Faisalabad-2008 (wheat) performed well, but at high salinity levels, the hormetic impact of moringa leaf extract was more obvious, enhancing the germination and growth of cultivar Galaxy-2013, which was salinity-sensitive. Wheat cultivars’ germination and seedling growth improved most when primed with 2% MLE (Faisalabad-2008) and 2.5% MLE (Galaxy-2013). This demonstrated that moringa possesses growthpromoting compounds that efficiently mitigate the toxic impacts of salinity.