Salinity Stress and its impact on Morpho-Physiological Characteristics of Aloe Vera

Aloe Vera is a valuable medicinal plant. Its leaf and gel in particular are widely used as skin care and in medical applications. Salinity however, is an abiotic stress, and can negatively affect the plant's morphological characteristics as well as quality and quantity of its phytochemical compounds of, including total phenol, total soluble sugars and its components, namely sucrose, glucose, and fructose. In order to investigate the impact of salinity stress on morphological and physiological traits of plant, different levels of NaCl, namely 0 (control), 50, 100, 150, 200 and 250 mM were applied in a complete randomised design with three replications under greenhouse conditions. The results indicated that salinity stress has significant negative effect on the plant's morphological traits, such as its weight, leaf length, leaf weight, gel weight, root length; and biochemical traits such as total phenol, total soluble sucrose, glucose and fructose. The results of this study indicate that salinity stress has significant negative effect on Aloe Vera's morphological traits which results in yield loss. Moreover, biochemical traits such as photosynthetic and defences of plants are also affected. It is thus, clear that Aloe Vera is susceptible to salinity stress.