Assessment of early physiological and biochemical responses in chia (Salvia hispanica L.) sprouts under salt stress

This study was planned to evaluate some early physiological and biochemical impacts of different concentrations of NaCl on germination characters, salt tolerance attributes, total carbohydrate, essential plant nutrients, proline, lipid peroxidation, cell membrane integrity and the contents of some antioxidants of chia sprouts after setting seeds to germinate in the stressful media for 7 days. The mean values of the studied germination parameters declined linearly with increasing NaCl concentrations as compared with control. Stress tolerance attributes appeared to decrease significantly and progressively with increasing NaCl levels, except for 10 mM NaCl which induced comparable values with those of control. Furthermore, total carbohydrate content, proline, lipid peroxidation, membrane injury, ascorbic acid, phenolic compounds and total flavonoids increased significantly and linearly with the increase in NaCl levels. The mineral elements of the salinized chia sprouts were either increased (Ca and Zn) or decreased (K, P and Cu) with the increase in NaCl levels as compared with control values. This study, under the present set of experimental conditions, clearly indicated that chia sprouts were sensitive to salt stress at concentrations above 10 mM NaCl.