Effects of salinity on growth and chlorophyll content of Aglaonema simplex cultures

Abstract

The study of salinity effect on plant cultures were expected to offer understanding of plant response to salinity. These will then helps solving problem of supply and quality of cultured plant. The effects of different concentrations of sodium chloride, NaCl (0 rn.M, 25 mM, 50 mM and 100 mM), on growth and chlorophyll content in Aglaonema simplex cultures were studied. Growth of stems, roots, leaves and biomass as well as chlorophyll content were measured every 0, 1, 2, 7, 14 and 28 days of treatment periods. Generally, treatment with NaCl resulted in increased of A. simplex cultures fresh weight, dry weight and stem height while root length reduced significantly (P<0.05) when treated with 50 mM NaCl especially at later stages of treatment periods. NaCl treatment did not significantly (P>0.05) affected leaves length and leaves width of A. simplex cultures. Chlorophyll content were significantly (P<0.05) higher in control plant compared to the treated cultures especially after 7 days of experiment. Above results indicated that oxidative stress caused by NaCl would not affected the growth of A. simplex cultures while significantly lowered the chlorophyll content of treated cultures.