Exogenous Application of Chenopodium album Aqueous Extracts on Salt-Stressed Wheat Seedling

Biostimulants are substances when applied to plants seeds, or soil stimulates the natural process to improve water and nutrient use effectively and increase tolerance to biotic and abiotic stress by enhancing primary and secondary metabolism. Application of plant biostimulants in a state of environmental stress can reduce the effects of stress and improve soil water holding capacity, root growth, and yield. Particularly, they reduce the application of mineral fertilizers by increasing the number of micro-and macronutrients taken up by plants, positively affecting root morphology and plant growth. In this study, aqueous extract of different parts like shoot and bud of C. Album is used for observing role in salt stress tolerance of wheat seedling grown in vitro. The wheat seedling was germinated in moistened filter paper in petriplates, with 3 petriplates for each treatment and 10 seeds in each petriplate (the study was done in triplicates). Then observing seed germination in control set in which no plant extract was used and two concentration of salt was taken i.e., 50mM and 100mM, along with no salt stress (0mM). In another set, the same salt stress was used but seeds were also treated with shoot and bud extract of C. album. After their growth for 7 days, seedlings were measured for root length, shoot length, wet weight, and dry weight. Again the same sets of experiments were repeated for measuring biochemical parameters like protein, sugar, and proline. It was observed that aqueous extract of Chenopodium can induce salt stress by increasing protein, proline, and sugar content along with better growth characteristics of seedlings. In conclusion, an aqueous extract of Chenopodium can be used as a biostimulant for fighting stress tolerance in the wheat seedling. Further, this study can be extended to other plant species other than wheat, and a gene expression study can be done for further validation.