Growth and acclimatization response of sunflower plantlets treated with naphthyl acetic acid-based environment friendly plant growth promoters

Abstract

Preparing novel compounds using environment-friendly protocols for plant growth has remained a major goal for plant scientists. In this research, effect of a novel plant growth promoter on sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) was assessed hydroponically as well as in soil acclimatized plantlets at 1, 10, and 100 µM. The plants were also assessed for antioxidant enzymatic and antifungal activities. The synthesized derivative 2 produced significantly better results in terms of overall growth as compared with standards at 1 µM concentration among all compounds. Increased catalase and superoxide dismutase levels in plant seedlings treated with synthesized compounds were observed when grown in hydroponics, but these values were found to be significantly low as compared to soil-acclimatized plants. No significant zone of inhibition was found on agar plates in antifungal bioassay.